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CONVERSATIONS 


ON 


THE     BIBLE 


WRITTEN   FOR   THE 


MASSACHUSETTS  SABBATH  SCHOOL  UNION. 

Jetcob    Abb  c>"V1~ 
BY    ERODORE. 


REVISED  BY  THE  PUBLISHING  COMMITTEE. 


Boston : 

PRINTED   BY  T.   R.  MARTIN,   FOR  THE 

MASSACHUSETTS  SABBATH  SCHOOL  UNION, 

And  sold  at  their  Depository. 

1829. 


DISTRICT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS to  wit  : 

District  Clerk's  Office. 
Be  it  remembered,  that  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  November,  A.  0. 
1829,  in  the  fifty  fourth  year  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  Christopher  C.  Dean,  of  the  said  District,  has  deposited  in 
tins  Office  the  Title  of  a  Book,  the  right  whereof  he  claims  as  Proprietor, 
hi  the  words  following-,  to  wit : — 

u  Conversations  on  the  Bible.    Written  for  the  Massachusetts  Sabbath 
School  Union.     By  Erodore." 

In  conformity  to  the  Act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  State3;  entitled 
a  An  Act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  maps, 
charts  and  books,  to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of  such  copies,  during  the 
times  therein  mentioned  :"  and  also  to  an  Act  entitled  "  An  Act  supplemen- 
tary to  an  Act  entitled  An  Act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  by 
tecuring  the  copies  of  maps,  charts  and  books,  to  the  authors  and  proprietors 
of  such  copies  during  the  times  therein  mentioned;  and  extending  the 
benefits  thereof  to  the  arts  of  designing,  engraving  and  etching  historical 
and  other  prints." 

TMr\   \\r    n  a  T7TC   1  Clerk  of  the  District 
J^O,  W.  DAVIS,  £  0/ M^sachusau, 


***% 


- 


PREFACE. 


A  child  who  has  been  accustomed  to  read  the 
Bible  from  infancy,  may4,  and  in  fact  generally  does, 
acquire  a  minute  and  familiar  acquaintance  with  all 
its  parts,  while  he  is  entirely  destitute  of  any  general 
and  comprehensive  conceptions  of  its  character  and 
design  as  a  whole.  The  manner  in  which  the  Scrip- 
tures are  read,  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  devotion, 
does  not  commonly  encourage  the  attainment  of  any 
general  views.  A  new  chapter  is  not  read  until  at 
least  all  vivid  recollection  of  the  preceding  has  passed 
away ; — one  book  is  not  collated  with  another  ;  the 
subjects  of  allusions  are  not  sought  for  and  examined  ; 
and  thus  a  great  many  of  the  beauties,  as  well  as  a 
great  many  of  the  difficulties  of  the  Bible,  remain 
unobserved,  for  want  of  the  very  little  spirit  of  investi- 
gation which  would  be  sufficient  to  discover  them. 
There  are  probably  many,  very  many,  families  in 
New  England,  which  have  for  years  listened  morning 
and  evening  to  the  reading  of  the  Gospels,  and  yet 
whose  inmates  would  now  be  surprised  to  learn,  that 
our  Saviour  was  clothed  by  his  enemies,  on  the  testi- 
mony of  one  evangelist,  in  a  scarlet,  and  on  that  of 
another,  in  a  purple  robe. 


IV  PREFACE. 

It  is  the  design  of  the  following  Conversations  to 
co-operate  with  many  other  works  now  in  circulation, 
in  assisting  the  young  to  acquire  a  thorough  and  a 
connexted  knowledge  of  the  sacred  Scriptures.  It  was 
the  original  design  of  the  writer  to  discuss  the  follow- 
ing subjects  in  addition  to  those  presented  in  this 
work,  viz. :  the  times  and  circumstances  in  which 
some  of  the  principal  books  of  the  Bible  were  writ- 
ten ; — the  lives  and  characters  of  their  authors  ; — the 
manner  in  which  the  books  were  at  first  written,  pre- 
served and  circulated  ; — an  account  of  the  principal 
versions  and  translations  which  have  appeared  ; — de- 
gree of  circulation  which  the  Bible  has  had  at  different 
periods  ; — efforts  which  have  been  made  to  oppose  its 
influence,  or  to  destroy  its  authority  ; — extent  of  its 
present  circulation  and  influence  in  the  world  ; — and 
finally,  the  efforts  now  making  to  translate  it  into  every 
language,  and  to  carry  it  to  every  family  upon  the 
globe. 

This  was  the  original  design  ;  but  the  writer  of 
these  sheets  is  unavoidably  prevented  from  completing 
it.  It  is  highly  desirable  that  some  one  should  pre- 
sent these  subjects  in  a  familiar  manner,  to  the 
throngs  which  are  now  collected  around  Sabbath 
school  libraries. 


CONTENTS. 


CONVERSATION  I. 

DIVINE   AUTHORITY  OF   THE   BIBLE. 

Occasion  of  these  conversations.  Sunday  school  class.  Names  and 
characters  of  the  boys.  Nature  of  inspiration.  Proofs  of  it. 
(1.)  Presumption  in  its  favor  from  internal  evidence;  comparison  of 
the  Bible  with  the  Koran  in  this  respect.  (2.)  Proof  from 
prophecy.  Striking-  examples  of  prophecy;  viz.  predictions  of  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  of  the  coming  of  Christ.  Some 
predictions  not  proofs  of  miraculous  power.  (3.)  Proof  from 
miracles.  Different  ends  accomplished  by  miracles  and  prophecy. 
Recapitulation  of  the  whole  subject;  by  the  boys,  on  their  return 
home. 


CONVERSATION  II. 

NATURAL   GEOGRAPHY   OF   THE   SCENE   OF   SCRIPTURE   HISTORY, 

Meeting  of  the  class.  Map.  Distinction  between  Natural  and  Civil 
Geography.  Scene  of  Scripture  History.  Five  principal  seas  5 
Mediterranean,  Black,  Caspian,  Persian  Gulf,  and  Red  Sea.  Four 
principal  rivers;  Tigris,  Euphrates,  (Mesopotamia;  sources  of 
rivers.)  Nile,  (its  peculiarities ;  crocodiles ;  Moses,)  Jordan. 
Natural  divisions  of  land.  (1.)  Fertile  regions  pointed  out  and 
described.  (2.)  Deserts.  Mode  of  travelling  through  deserts. 
Abraham's  journeys.  (3.)  Mountainous  regions;  Lebanon,  Cau- 
casus, Ararat.    Uncertainty  about  the  position  of  Mount  Ararat. 


Page 


VI  CONTENTS. 


Page 


Degree  of  dependence  to  be  placed  upon  maps  of  ancient  countries. 
The  teacher's  questions.  Examination  of  the  mouths  of  rivers. 
Evidence  of  the  real  age  of  the  world,  derived  from  them.  Extract 
from  Mr.  Wood's  travels  across  a  desert.  Walk  with  the  teacher  to 
see  the  mouth  of  a  brook.  Illustration  of  the  reasoning  from  the 
mouths  of  rivers.  Reasoning"  of  the  boatman.  Degree  of  accu- 
racy attainable  in  such  calculations.  12 


CONVERSATION  III. 

FIRST    PERIOD    OF    SCRIPTURE    HISTORY. 

Object  of  going  over  the  Scripture  history  in  these  conversations. 
Explanation  of  the  map  illustrating  this  period.  The  creation.  The 
Sabbath  the  first  divine  institution  ;  its  intended  perpetuity.  Adam 
and  Eve.  Nature  of  their  sin.  The  guilt  of  disobedience.  Flood. 
Questions  about  the  antediluvian  world.  Method  of  calculating  from 
the  Bible  the  time  of  the  flood.  Conduct  of  men  after  the  flood. 
God's  design  in  separating  Abraham  and  his  family  from  the  rest 
of  mankind.  Time  of  the  call  of  Abraham.  Uses  of  the  chapters 
of  names.  Abraham's  journey.  A  famine.  Tents.  Isaac.  Ja- 
cob in  Egypt.  Bondage  and  escape  of  the  Israelites.  Their 
journey.  Laws  of  God.  Manner  in  which  they  were  written  and 
preserved.  Arrival  at  Canaan.  Right  of  the  children  of  Israel  to 
Canaan.  Tribes.  The  snow  storm.  Morning.  John's  morning 
prayer.  Cruden's  Concordance  5  description  and  use.  Search  for 
a  list  of  the  tribes.  .  Lists  compared.  Difficulty.  Explanation. 
Thirteen  tribes.  S3 


CONVERSATION  IV. 

SECOND    PERIOD    OF    SCRIPTURE    HISTORY. 

The  double  map.  Description  of  Canaan.  Tribes  which  settled 
east  of  Canaan.  The  camp  at  Gilgal.  Original  inhabitants  of 
Canaan.  Judah  and  Benjamin.  First  form  of  government} 
judges.  Circumstances  of  the  appointment  of  Saul,  the  first  king. 
Saul's  character  ;  his  gradual  declension  and  final  ruin.  Delay  of 
Christ's  coming  5  possible  reasons  for  it.  David.  Jerusalem. 
Solomon.    The  temple ;  its  structure  and  use.    Secession  of  the 


CONTENTS.  VU 

Page 
ten  tribes  ;  two  histories,  Kings  and  Chronicles.  Two  kingdoms. 
Guilt  and  punishment  of  the  ten  tribes.  Prophets.  Isaiah.  Ob- 
stinacy of  the  Jews.  Siege  of  Jerusalem.  Captivity.  Release 
and  return.  Books  of  Daniel.  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.  Grecian 
and  Roman  conquests  of  Palestine.  53 


CONVERSATION  V. 

THIRD   PERIOD   OF    SCRIPTURE   HISTORY. 

Divisions  of  Palestine  in  the  time  of  Christ.  Judea,  Samaria,  and 
Galilee.  Character  of  the  Samaritans.  Parentage  and  birth  of 
Christ.  Cause  of  Herod's  alarm.  Commencement  of  Christ's 
public  preaching.  Its  effect.  His  missions.  His  enemies  resolve 
upon  his  death.  His  trial,  first  before  a  Jewish,  and  then  before  a 
Roman  court.    His  death.    Time  of  his  remaining  in  the  tomb.  70 


CONVERSATION  VI. 

FOURTH  PERIOD   OF   SCRIPTURE   HISTORY. 

Description  of  the  map ;  seas  5  countries.  Account  of  the  condition 
of  the  Roman  empire  at  this  time.  Christ's  last  command  to  his 
followers.  First  public  preaching  of  the  gospel  after  Christ's 
death,  to  the  Jews.  Success.  Stephen's  death.  Persecution. 
Preaching  of  the  gospel  to  the  Gentiles.  Difficulties  in  the  way; 
qualifications  necessary  in  the  individual  appointed  on  this  service. 
Saul  selected.  Reasons  why  he  should  not  commence  this  service. 
Peter's  preaching  to  Cornelius.  Paul's  missionary  excursion. 
Synagogues.  Second  excursion.  Controversy  in  regard  to  Gen- 
tile converts.  Decision.  Visit  to  Greece.  Athens,  Corinth.  The 
epistles  ;  their  nature  and  design.  Paul's  return  to  Jerusalem ;  his 
trials;  voyage;  arrival  at  Rome.  Chronology.  Mode  of  repre- 
senting the  times  of  events.  Chronological  line.  Uses  of  the 
chronological  line.  Chronological  week.  Attempts  of  the  boys 
to  draw  chronological  lines.  80 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 


CONVERSATION  VII.    Conclusion. 


Page 


The  boys  assemble.  A  siek  room.  The  pious  physician.  Uncer- 
tainty of  health  and  life.  Advantages  of  sickness  $  it  teaches  pa- 
tience 3  humility  j  sense  of  our  dependence.  Sickness  not  always 
improved  aright.    The  minister's  visit.    Close.  104 


<\     -c'0r 


CONVERSATIONS    ON   THE   BIBLE. 


CONVERSATION  I. 

DIVINE  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

In  the  fall  of  the  year,  when  it  began  to  be  cold 
and  stormy,  it  was  decided  to  discontinue  the  Sabbath 
school  during  the  winter  months.  The  reason  given 
was,  that  the  scholars,  especially  the  small  children,  could 
not  conveniently  come  over  the  bleak  hills,  through  the 
deep  snow;  and  that  the  classes,  while  they  were  together, 
would  be  uncomfortable,  and  could  not  therefore  well  at- 
tend to  the  lessons.  A  few  of  the  teachers,  however, 
thought  that  it  would  be  better  to  continue  the  school. 
They  said  that  the  small  children  might  stay  at  home 
when  it  was  very  cold  and  stormy,  and  they  supposed 
that  the  rest  would  rather  go  on  studying  the  Bible,  and 
learning  to  be  good  and  happy,  even  if*  they  did  suffer  in 
coming  to  the  school. 

One  of  these  teachers  had  a  class  of  boys,  and  on 
the  last  day  of  the  school,  he  proposed  to  them  to  come 
one  evening  in  each  week  to  his  house,  where  he  said 
he  would  give  them  some  information  in  regard  to  the 
Bible,  which  would  enable  them  to  understand  it  better. 

There  were  five  boys  in  the  class  :  only  three  of  them, 

however,  accepted  this  invitation.     One  of  these  was  the 

minister's  son.     His  name  was  Samuel,  and  he  was  the 

eldest  of  the  three,  being  about  14  years  of  age.     The 

1 


CONVERSATION'S     ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Class  assembles.  The  Bible  God's  Book. 

second  was  about  a  year  younger  :  his  father  and  mother 
were  wicked  people,  who  seldom  went  to  meeting,  and 
who  were  very  reluctant  that  Roger,  (for  that  was  the 
name  of  this  boy,)  should  go  to  the  Sabbath  school. 
Roger  was  a  very  intelligent  lad,  and  was  quite  desirous 
of  learning,  but  he  had  received  very  little  instruction. 
The  third  boy  was  the  youngest :  his  father  was  not  liv- 
ing ;  but  his  mother,  and  his  sister  older  than  himself, 
took  great  pains  to  teach  him  every  thing  important 
for  him  to  learn.  His  name  was  John,  and  he  was 
about  10  years  of  age. 

On  the  appointed  evening,  Samuel,  Roger,  and  John 
assembled  at  the  teacher's  room.  They  all  sat  down 
around  a  table,  before  a  pleasant  fire,  and  the  teacher 
had  before  him  a  map,  like  the  first  one  in  this  book. 
The  following  conversation  took  place. 

Teacher.  Well,  boys,  I  am  very  glad  that  you  three 
have  come  to  hear  what  I  am  going  to  tell  you  about 
the  Bible.  It  is  the  book  of  God;  it  contains  what  God 
says  to  us,  and  we  ought  to  do  all  we  can  to  be  able 
to  understand  it  rightly. 

John.  Sir,  how  is  the  Bible  God's  book  :  he  did  not 
write  it,  did  he,  as  men  write  ? 

Teacher.  No,  God  did  not  write  the  Bible  himself, 
at  all.  He  caused  good  men  to  write  it,  and  they  wrote 
what  he  wished  them  to  say. 

John.  Did  he  tell  them,  then,  with  his  voice,  and  did 
they  afterwards  write  it  down  I 

Teacher.  No,  he  did  not  even  tell  them  by  a  voice 
which  they  could  hear.  But  he  taught  them  by  an  influ- 
ence upon  their  minds,  so  that  they  should  know  what 
was  true,  and  he  made  them  faithful  and  careful  to  write 
it  down  correctlv. 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Inspiration.  Its  nature.  Proofs. 

Samuel.  I  do  not  think  1  know  exactly,  Sir,  what  you 
mean  by  an  influence  upon  their  minds. 

Teacher.  God  has  power  over  men's  thoughts  and 
feelings,  as  much  as  he  has  over  the  winds  and  the  waves. 
The  trains  of  thought  in  our  minds  are  very  different, 
and  in  some  instances  God  regulates  them  by  what  is 
called  a  divine  influence.  He  can  make  a  person  un- 
derstand a  truth  without  teaching  him  by  words,  or  by 
writing,  and  this  is  the  way  by  which  those  who  wrote 
the  Bible  knew  what  God  wished  them  to  say. 

Samuel.  But  did  not  God  tell  Moses  on  the  mount 
what  he  wished  him  to  write  about  the  ten  command- 
ments, and  the  law  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  he  did  ;  and  there  were  some  other 
cases  of  the  same  kind,  but  generally  the  sacred  writers 
were  taught  in  a  different  manner. 

Roger.  Sir,  will  you  tell  me  how  we  know  that  God 
caused  this  book  to  be  written,  and  that  he  taught  the 
men  what  to  write?  Do  not  some  people  think  that  the 
Bible  does  not  come  from  God,  but  that  it  was  made  up 
by  men  alone  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  some  men  do  say  so.  I  did  not  mean 
to  talk  on  this  subject  this  evening,  because  you  cannot 
understand  it  very  well  until  you  are  older.  Yet,  as  you 
have  mentioned  it,  I  will  explain  to  you  a  few  of  the 
principal  reasons  why  we  believe  the  Bible  comes  from 
God.  But  I  do  not  know  that  you,  little  John,  will  be 
able  to  understand  what  I  shall  say.  But  you  must  listen 
attentively,  and  try. 

John.  I  will,  Sir. 

Teacher.  The  first  reason  then  is,  that  it  is  very  proba- 
ble that  God  would  adopt  some  way  to  teach  us  his  will, 
and  to  inform  us  what  will  become  of  us  when  we  die. 
And  therefore  we  should  expect  to  find,  somewhere  in 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Internal  Evidence.  Koran.  Mahomet. 

the  world,  a  book  in  which  these  things  are  written. 
Now  the  Bible  is  exactly  such  a  book.  We  find  in  it 
exactly  that  kind  of  information  which  we  should  expect 
to  find  in  a  book  from  God.  It  tells  us  who  made  the 
world,  and  the  first  man;  how  that  man  sinned,  and  what 
is  the  character  of  all  men  now  ;  what  the  cause  is  of 
all  the  suffering  in  the  world,  and  why  men  must  die. 
It  tells  us  what  characters  we  must  form  to  please  God  ; 
how  we  can  form  them  ;  how  our  past  sins  can  be  for- 
given ;  where  our  spirits  will  go  when  we  die,  and  what 
will  be  done  with  the  holy,  and  with  the  unholy,  in 
another  world.  Now  this  is  exactly  what  God  would  tell 
us,  if  he  was  to  send  a  message  to  men  ;  and  therefore 
there  is  a  probability,  or  a  presumption,  as  it  is  called, 
that  the  Bible  is  from  him. 

Roger,  But  are  there  not  any  other  books  in  the  world 
which  say  they  are  God's  books  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  but  if  any  body  should  read  those  books, 
and  especially  if  he  should  compare  them  with  the  Bible, 
he  would  at  once  be  satisfied,  that  it  was  altogether  most 
probable  that  the  Bible  is  the  genuine  book.  For  in- 
stance, there  is  the  Koran,  which  was  written  by  a  man 
named  Mahomet,  and  which  he  pretended  was  written 
according  to  God's  directions.  Now,  one  great  object 
of  this  book  was  to  make  good  soldiers  for  Mahomet 
himself,  instead  of  making  holy  and  happy  men.  And 
it  is  much  more  probable  that  Mahomet  tried  to  deceive 
the  people,  for  the  sake  of  getting  a  great  army,  than 
that  God  should  cause  such  a  book  to  be  written. 

Samuel.  Did  Mahomet  ever  have  a  great  army  of  sol- 
diers, by  means  of  this  book  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  and  he  conquered  a  great  many  coun- 
tries, and  obtained  a  great  deal  of  wealth  and  power. 
But  the  writers  of  the  Bible  never  received,  and  never 


CONVERSATIONS     ON   THE    BIBLE. 


Story  of  the  Robbers. 


tried  to  obtain,  any  advantage  from  it,  and  therefore  it 
is  probable  that  they  were  sincere. 

Roger.  But  I  do  not  see  that  this  makes  it  quite  cer- 
tain that  the  Bible  came  from  God. 

Teacher.  No,  it  does  not.  This  is  one  reason  or  argu- 
ment ;  but  this  only  makes  it  probable.  I  am  going  to 
mention  the  second  and  the  third  arguments,  which  will 
make  it  certain. 

Samuel.  I  should  have  supposed,  Sir,  that  if  God  had 
directed  any  persons  to  write  what  he  wished  to  say  to 
mankind,  he  would  give  them  some  way  to  prove  that 
he  commanded  them  to  write. 

Teacher.  Well,  can  you  think  of  any  way  of  doing 
this? 

Samuel.  No,  Sir,  I  do  not  know  of  any. 

Teacher.  Well,  I  will  explain  it  to  you,  by  telling  a 
story.  Once  there  was  a  man,  who  was  travelling  in  a 
wild  country,  far  from  home,  when  he  was  attacked  by 
robbers,  who  took  away  all  his  money,  and  carried  him 
into  a  gloomy  cave.  They  kept  him  here  some  time, 
when  at  last  they  told  him  that  if  he  would  give  them  a 
certain  sum  of  money  more,  they  would  let  him  go  free 
again.  He  told  them  he  would  willingly  give  them  the 
money  if  he  had  it,  but  that  they  had  already  taken  all 
which  was  in  his  possession,  and  that  although  he  had 
more  at  home,  he  did  not  know  how  he  should  obtain  it. 

The  captain  of  the  robbers  said  he  must  send  a  mes- 
senger for  it.  But  the  traveller  asked  how  his  family 
would  know  that  he  sent  the  messenger.  "  You  have 
not,"  said  he,  "  any  paper  and  ink  here  in  the  cave, 
and  so  I  cannot  write  ;  and  if  the  messenger  goes  and 
merely  says  that  I  sent  him,  my  family  will  not  believe 
him,  and  so  will  not  give  him  the  money.  What  shall 
we  do  Vs 

1* 


COxWERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Difficulty  about  sending  a  Messenger. 


The  robbers  were  for  a  little  time  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  was  best  to  be  done.  Now  can  any  of  you  tell  how 
they  could  get  over  the  difficulty?  John,  what  would  you 
propose  ? 

John.  Might  they  not  let  the  traveller  go  with  the  mes- 
senger and  get  the  money,  and  then  let  the  messenger 
come  back  alone  ? 

Teacher.  Roger,  what  should  you  think  of  that  plan? 

Roger.  I  should  think,  that  when  the  traveller  found 
himself  safe  at  home,  he  would  refuse  to  give  the  messen- 
ger the  money. 

Samuel.  And  besides,  perhaps  he  would  tell  the  people 
in  the  town,  and  they  would  put  the  messenger  in  prison, 
and  punish  him  for  being  a  robber. 

Teacher.  Those  would  be  the  difficulties.  But  I  will 
tell  you  what  they  did.  The  traveller  had  in  his  pocket 
a  very  curious  key,  which  belonged  to  a  casket  in  his 
house.  So  he  gave  the  messenger  this  key,  and  the 
messenger  carried  it  to  the  traveller's  family,  who,  when 
they  had  tried  it  in  the  lock  of  the  casket  and  found  that 
it  fitted,  knew  that  it  was  brought  from  the  traveller  him- 
self, because  they  knew  that  nobody  else  had  such  a  key. 

John.  How  did  they  know  but  that  the  traveller  had 
lost  the  key,  and  the  man  who  had  brought  it  to  them 
had  found  it,  and  so  was  not  sent  by  the  traveller  ? 

Teacher.  They  could  not  know  certainly,  and  therefore 
this  was  not  a  certain  way  of  proving  that  the  messenger 
was  really  sent  by  the  person  from  wrhom  he  pretended 
to  come.  But  the  method  which  God  took  with  his 
messengers  is  not  liable  to  this  uncertainty.  The  keys 
which  he  gave  them  could  not  possibly  have  been  ob- 
tained by  any  other  way  than  by  receiving  them  directly 
from  God  himself. 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Prophecy.  Death  of  Christ  foretold. 

Roger,  What  do  you  mean  by  the  keys  which  God 
gave  ? 

Teacher.  Of  course  I  do  not  mean  real  keys ;  but  I 
will  explain  to  you  what  I  do  mean.  He  gave  them  two 
things,  which  they  were  to  show  to  men,  and  thus  con- 
vince them  that  they  came  from  God. 

The  first  was  the  power  to  foresee  and  to  foretell  future 
events,  which  they  could  not  have  possessed  without 
receiving  it  directly  from  him. 

Samuel.  What  events  did  they  foretell  ? 

Teacher.  A  great  many.  I  will  tell  you  one  or  two. 
The  prophet  Isaiah  foretold  the  coming  of  Christ.  He 
described  particularly  his  character,  his  object  in  coming 
into  the  world,  the  circumstances  of  his  life,  and  of  his 
death.  He  foretold  that  the  Saviour  would  be  put  to 
death  with  malefactors,  that  the  soldiers  would  draw  lots 
for  his  clothes,  and  that  he  would  be  buried  in  a  rich 
man's  tomb.  Now  all  this  came  to  pass  exactly  as  it  had 
been  foretold,  hundreds  of  years  afterwards.  Another 
instance  is  our  Saviour's  predicting  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem.  When  he  lived,  Jerusalem  was  a  great  and 
populous  city,  and  in  peace  and  safety  ;  but  he  foretold 
that  within  about  seventy  years  it  should  be  conquered 
by  foreign  enemies,  and  totally  destroyed.  He  said  also 
that  the  inhabitants  of  the  city,  and  of  the  surrounding 
country,  would  suffer  dreadfully  from  hunger,  and  from 
diseases,  and  from  the  cruelty  of  their  enemies. 

Roger.  And  did  it  turn  out  so  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  precisely.  At  the  time  mentioned  by 
Christ,  a  large  Roman  army  came  to  Jerusalem,  and  laid 
siege  to  it.  The  inhabitants  tried  to  defend  themselves  ; 
but  after  they  had  endured  the  most  dreadful  sufferings, 
the  city  was  conquered  by  the  Romans  and  destroyed, 
and  vast  multitudes  of  the  people  were  cruelly  murdered. 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Predicting  Eclipses.  Miracles. 

Now,  this  power  of  foretelling  what  a  man  could  not 
possibly  know  without  God's  assistance,  is  called  prophe- 
cy ;  and  the  possession  of  it  proves  that  those  to  whom 
it  is  given,  are  God's  messengers. 

Samuel.  But  sometimes  men  can  foretell  what  is  future 
by  their  own  knowledge, — can  they  not? 

Teacher.  Yes,  some  kinds  of  things.  Such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  an  eclipse  of  the  sun.  The  motions  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  are  so  regular  that  astronomers  can  cal- 
culate all  the  changes  a  long  time  beforehand.  But  it  is 
not  so  with  such  things  as  were  predicted  in  the  Bible. 
No  human  knowledge  or  skill  would  enable  any  person  to 
tell  exactly  how  Christ  would  be  tried,  and  executed,  and 
buried,  hundreds  of  years  before  the  time. 

Samuel.  Well,  Sir,  I  believe  we  understand  this  ;  but 
you  said  that  there  were  two  things,  which  the  writers 
of  the  Bible  had,  to  prove  that  they  were  sent  from  God. 

Teacher.  The  other  was  the  power  of  working  mira- 
cles ;  that  is,  of  doing  things  which  men  cannot  do 
without  God ;  such  as  healing  sicknesses  by  a  word, 
calling  down  rain  from  heaven,  and  even  raising  the 
dead  to  life.  These  things,  and  many  others  of  similar 
character,  were  often  done  by  those  who  wrote  the  Bible, 
and  it  is  proof  that  God  was  with  them. 

Roger.  Yes,  Sir,  Jesus  Christ  worked  a  great  many 
miracles. 

Teacher.  Yes,  and  so  did  Moses,  and  the  Prophets, 
and  the  Apostles. 

Samuel.  But  why  did  they  have  both  these  powers, 
prophesying  and  working  miiacles  ?  I  should  have 
thought  one  would  have  been  enough. 

Teacher.  I  have  sometimes  thought  this  was  the  rea- 
son. Those,  who  lived  at  the  same  time  with  any  par- 
ticular writer  would  be  better  satisfied  with  seeing  mira- 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    TIIE    BIBLE. 


Samuel's  Question. 


cles,  because  they  could  see  the  miracle  fully  performed. 
But  prophecy  would  do  them  no  good,  because  they 
could  not  tell  whether  it  would  come  to  pass  or  not.  On 
the  other  hand,  those  who  should  live  in  after  ages  would 
be  better  satisfied  with  prophecy,  because  they  would 
read  the  prediction  in  the  Bible,  and  know  that  it  had 
been  written  a  great  while  before,  and  would  see  the 
event  coming  to  pass  accordingly  ;  while  the  miracles 
would  have  been  ended  long  before  they  lived  to  see 
them. 

The  teacher  then  told  his  class  that  it  was  time  to 
close  the  lesson  ;  and  they  all,  except  John,  rose  to  go. 
Samuel  looked  at  John,  and  found  that  he  was  fast  asleep, 
with  his  head  leaning  upon  his  hand,  which  rested  upon 
the  table.  Samuel  gently  waked  him,  and  at  first  he 
looked  a  little  ashamed.  But  the  teacher  told  him  that 
he  supposed  it  was  hard  for  him  to  understand  what  he 
had  been  saying  that  evening,  and  therefore  he  did  not 
wonder  that  he  was  sleepy.  He  told  him,  however,  not 
to  be  discouraged,  for  what  he  was  going  to  explain  to 
them  the  next  time  would  be  much  more  interesting. 

The  boys  then  took  their  hats,  and  were  going  ;  but 
before  they  went  out,  Samuel  said, — There  is  one  thing  I 
wish  to  ask,  Sir,  before  we  go.  I  understand  that  there 
are  things  foretold  in  the  Bible,  which  came  to  pass  ex- 
actly, and  there  are  miracles  described  there ;  and  if  it  is 
true  that  these  things  were  done,  the  persons  who  did 
them  must  have  come  from  God.  But  how  do  we  know 
that  the  miracles  were  ever  actually  performed,  it  was 
so  long  ago  ;  and  how  do  we  know  but  that  somebody 
wrote  the  predictions  after  the  events  took  place,  and  so 
made  them  agree  ? 

Teacher.  That  is  a  very  proper  question  :  do  you  know, 
how  to  answer  it,  Roger  ? 


10  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Samuel's  recapitulation. 

Roger.  You  told  us  a  little  while  ago  that  the  predic- 
tions were  written  hundreds  of  years  before  the  events. 

Teacher.  Yes,  but  how  did  I  know  ? 

Roger.  I  do  not  know,  Sir  :  I  suppose  you  read  it  in 
some  book. 

Teacher.  That  would  not  be  proof,  because  the  writer  of 
the  book  might  be  in  an  error.  It  requires  a  great  deal  of 
knowledge,  and  of  reading,  to  be  able  to  judge  of  the  truth 
of  ancient  history,  and  of  the  order  in  which  events  so  an- 
cient took  place.  Those,  however,  who  have  been  able 
to  examine  and  to  understand  the  subject,  have  found 
abundant  evidence  that  the  predictions  were  written  at 
the  time  they  purport  to  be,  and  that  the  miracles  were 
really  performed. 

After  the  teacher  had  said  this,  he  bid  the  boys  good 
night,  and  they  went  away  together.  On  their  way, 
Roger  asked  John  why  he  did  not  keep  awake  better. 

John.  I  did  try  ;  but  I  could  not  understand  the  teach- 
er very  well,  and  pretty  soon  I  got  very  sleepy. 

Samuel.  Well,  I  will  tell  you  what  he  said  were  the 
reasons  for  believing  that  the  Bible  came  from  God. 
There  are  three. 

1.  That  it  is  most  likely  that  God  would  send  some 
message  to  mankind,  and  there  is  no  book  in  the  world 
which  is  such  an  one  as  God  would  probably  cause  to  be 
written,  except  the  Bible  ;  that  makes  it  probable  that 
the  Bible  is  from  God. 

2.  The  second  reason  is,  that  the  men  who  wrote  the 
Bible  had  the  power  to  foretell  future  events,  which 
nobody  but  God  could  have  given  them. 

o.  And  the  third  reason  is,  they  could  work  miracles, 
which  they  could  not  have  done  without  God. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  H 


The  boys  return  home. 


John.  I  believe  I  only  heard  the  first  one.  The  last 
thing  I  remember  is  his  telling  a  story  about  some 
robbers. 

Roger.  I  wonder  whether  the  messenger,  who  carried 
that  curious  key,  got  the  money. 

John.  I  do  not  know :  I  believe  he  did  not  tell  us.  I 
mean  to  ask  him  next  time  we  o-0. 


12  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Subject, — Natural  Geography. 


CONVERSATION  II. 

NATURAL    GEOGRAPHY   OF   THE    SCENE   OF    SCRIPTURE 
HISTORY. 

When  the  appointed  evening  of  the  next  week  arrived, 
the  boys  again  assembled  around  the  table  in  the  teach- 
er's room.  The  teacher  himself  sat  at  the  head  of  the 
table,  and  unrolled  a  large  map,  like  the  one  at  the  begin- 
ning of  this  conversation.  While  he  was  opening  it,  he 
made  the  following  explanation  of  the  general  contents  of 
the  Bible,  and  of  the  plan  he  designed  to  pursue,  in  giv- 
ing them  information  concerning  it. 

Teacher.  We  have  the  Bible  almost  always  in  one 
book,  but  it  is  composed  of  what  were  at  first  a  great 
many  separate  books,  written  by  different  persons,  and 
at  very  different  times.  A  large  number  of  them  are, 
however,  historical,  and  contain  a  connected  account  of  a 
series  of  events  extending  through  a  period  of  many  thou- 
sand years.  I  mean,  this  evening,  to  give  you  some  de- 
scription of  the  natural  geography  of  the  countries  in 
which  these  events  took  place. 

Samuel.  What  do  you  mean,  Sir,  by  natural  geog- 
raphy ? 

John.  I  know,  I  believe  ;  geography  means  an  account 
of  the  rivers,  and  mountains,  and  towns,  &,c.  in  a 
country. 

Samuel.  I  knew  that  was  the  meaning  of  geography, 
but  I  thought  that  perhaps  you  meant  something  a  little 
different  by  natural  geography. 


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CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  13 

Civil  Geography.  Countries.  Seas. 

Teacher.  I  do.  I  mean  an  account  of  what  by  nature 
belongs  in  a  region — such  as  the  rivers  and  seas,  the  moun- 
tains, deserts,  and  plains.  There  is,  besides  this,  civil 
geography,  which  is  a  description  of  what  is  artificial ; 
that  is,  what  has  been  made  or  done  by  man,  such  as 
countries,  cities,  buildings,  &c.  It  is  the  former  only 
which  I  mean  to  bring  before  you  this  evening. 

Roger.  Would  it  not  be  useful  to  us  to  hear  something 
about  the  cities  and  the  people  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  and  I  shall  endeavor  to  give  you  some 
information  concerning  them,  as  we  proceed.  But  I  think 
it  would  be  of  advantage  to  you  first  to  have  a  general 
view  of  the  situation  of  these  regions, — the  rivers,  seas 
and  mountains,  the  climate  and  productions  ; — in  a  word, 
to  see  the  whole,  just  as  it  was  before  man  made  any 
changes  in  it.  We  shall  then  be  prepared  to  take  up 
the  line  of  history,  and  trace  the  effects  produced  by 
human  power,  the  establishment  of  empires,  the  building 
of  cities,  and  the  progress  of  civilization.  Can  any  of 
you  tell  in  what  part  of  the  world  those  regions  are,  in 
which  the  events  recorded  in  the  Bible  took  place  ? 

John.  Yes,  Sir  ;  they  are  in  Asia. 

Teacher.  Yes,  principally  ;  but  not  wholly  in  Asia. 
They  were  where  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa  join  ;  and  ex- 
tended into  all  three  of  these  continents.  I  have  drawn 
this  map  of  the  countries  for  you. 

John.  (Pointing  to  the  sea  marked  M,  on  the  map.) 
Sir,  is  not  this  the  Mediterranean  Sea  ?  I  believe  I 
learned  it  in  my  geography  lesson  at  school  the  other 
day. 

Teacher.  Yes.  This  is  the  largest  of  the  five  great 
seas,  in  and  around  this  portion  of  the  earth.  It  was 
on  this  account  called  the  Great  Sea,  and  sometimes  only 
2 


14  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Mediterranean  Sea.  Black  Sea.  Caspian  Sea. 

the  Sea.  Roger,  can  you  tell  which  way  this  sea  is  from 
the  middle  of  the  map  ? 

Roger.  It  is  West.  I  see  it  is  not  very  wide  from 
North  to  South,  but  extends  much  farther  towards  the 
West.  Why  is  the  coast  unfinished  here  ?  (Pointing 
to  a  a.) 

Teacher.  Because  the  countries  mentioned  in  the  Bible 
did  not  extend  any  farther  towards  the  West,  and  so  it  is 
not  necessary  to  draw  the  coast  any  farther. 

John.  Did  they  sail  on  this  sea  much  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  in  the  later  periods  of  scripture  history. 
In  fact,  this  sea  is  remarkable  for  being  the  one  probably 
upon  which  men  first  built  ships,  and  commenced  the 
arts  of  navigation  and  commerce.  It  was  here  that  Paul 
was  sailing  when  he  was  shipwrecked. 

Roger.  Here  is  another  sea,  (pointing  to  B,)  North 
of  the  Mediterranean.     What  is  the  name  of  it? 

Teacher.  It  is  not  exactly  North,  but  North-East. 
Samuel,  can  you  tell,  by  its  shape  and  place,  what  is 
its  name  ? 

Samuel.  It  is  the  Black  Sea ;  but  I  did  not  know  it 
was  mentioned  in  the  Bible. 

Teacher.  I  believe  it  is  not ;  but  the  country  South  of 
it,  between  it  and  the  Mediterranean,  is  the  scene  of  a 
very  important  part  of  scripture  history.  This  sea,  you 
observe,  is  connected  with  the  Mediterranean  by  a  pas- 
sage here,  (pointing  to  b.) 

John.  What  is  this  next  sea,  (pointing  to  C,)  which 
stands  out  by  itself? 

Teacher.  It  is  the  Caspian.  It  is  entirely  surrounded 
by  land,  except  that  some  rivers  flow  into  it.  It  is 
remarkable,  on  account  of  its  waters  being  salt. 

Samuel.  I  thought  that  the  water  in  the  sea  was  always 
salt. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  15 

Red  Sea.  Persian  Gulf.  Pharaoh.  Five  seas. 

Teacher.  It  is,  in  all  seas  connected  with  the  ocean  ; 
but  inland  bodies  of  water,  I  mean  those  which  are  sur- 
rounded by  land,  are  usually  fresh. 

Samuel.  The  great  lakes  in  North  America  are  fresh 
water, — are  they  not  ? 

Roger.  They  are  connected  with  the  sea  by  the  river 
St.  Lawrence. 

Teacher.  That  is  true  ;  but  this  river  only  carries  water 
from  the  lakes  into  the  ocean,  and  is  not  such  a  passage 
as  would  make  an  open  channel,  so  as  to  make  the  lakes 
salt.  This  Caspian  Sea  is  the  third  great  body  of  water, 
around  the  countries  mentioned  in  the  Bible ;  the  fourth 
is  here,  (pointing  to  P,)  towards  the  South-East.  It  is 
the  Persian  Gulf.  You  observe  these  two  great  rivers 
flowing  into  it.  We  shall  speak  of  them,  however,  by 
and  by. 

John.  Here  is  a  fifth  sea,  (pointing  to  R.) 

Teacher.  It  is  the  Red  Sea.  The  children  of  Israel, 
under  Moses,  passed  across  this  extremity  of  it,  (point- 
ing to  c.) 

John.  And  Pharaoh  was  drowned,  in  trying  to  follow 
them. 

Teacher.  Yes.  These,  the  Mediterranean,  the  Black 
and  the  Caspian  Seas,  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  the  Red  Sea, 
are  the  five  great  bodies  of  water  in  and  around  the 
regions  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  The  most  important 
events  in  scripture  history,  took  place  in  the  country 
within  these,  especially  near  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  here,  (pointing  to  d.) 

John.  Is  there  not  a  little  sea  marked  here  ?  (point- 
ing to  D.) 

Teacher.  Yes,  the  Dead  Sea,  and  the  River  Jordan 
flowing  into  it.  It  is  quite  small,  in  comparison  with 
the  others,  but  there   have  been  a  great  many  singular 


16  CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE      BIBLE. 

Rivers  ;  Tigris,  Euphrates.  Sources  of  rivers. 

stories  about  it.  It  is  called  the  Salt  Sea.  We  shall 
speak  of  this,  however,  more  particularly  hereafter. 

The  next  thing  to  be  attended  to,  is  the  rivers.  There 
are  four  principal  rivers  in  these  regions.  These  two, 
(pointing  to  T,  and  E,)  are  called  the  Tigris  and  Euphra- 
tes. John,  can  you  tell  in  what  part  of  the  sacred  re- 
gion these  rivers  are  ? 

Jolin.  Yes,  Sir  ;    in  the  Eastern  part. 

Teacher.  In  which  direction  do  they  flow? 

John.  They  run  towards  the  South-East,  into  this  sea, 
(marked  P.)    I  forget  what  its  name  is. 

Roger.  It  is  the  Persian  Gulf. 

Teacher.  These  two  rivers  rise  not  very  far  from  each 
other ;  and  they  run  so  as  almost  to  enclose  this  space 
(M,)  which  was  called  Mesopotamia. 

John.  How  is  it  that  rivers  rise  ?  I  never  understood 
exactly. 

Teacher.  Generally  they  begin  among  the  mountains, 
from  springs,  where  the  water  boils  up  out  of  the  ground. 
This  forms  a  little  brook,  which  runs  along  and  meets 
other  little  brooks,  and  thus  gradually  increases,  until  at 
last  it  becomes  a  large  river,  and  empties  into  the  sea. 

John.  Do  all  the  little  brooks  which  we  see,  become 
rivers  ? 

Teacher.  No.  Most  of  them  run  into  other  rivers,  be- 
fore they  become  very  large. 

Roger.  Does  all  the  water  in  the  rivers  come  up  out  of 
the  ground  ? 

Teacher.  No.  Much  of  it  comes  from  the  rain  which 
falls  upon  the  surrounding  country :  and  the  melting 
snows  too  in  the  spring  swell  the  streams,  and  sometimes 
cause  them  to  overflow  their  banks. 

Samuel.  Do  you  know,  Sir,  what  is  the  cause  of  the 
water's  boiling  up,  out  of  the  ground,  in  those  springs  ? 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  17 

Nile.  Crocodiles.  Jordan. 


Teacher.  No.  I  do  not  exactly.  But  we  must  go  on 
with  the  examination  of  the  rivers.  I  have  mentioned 
two,  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  The  third  is  the  Nile. 
This  is  it,  (pointing  to  N.)  Roger,  can  you  tell  in 
what  part  of  the  sacred  regions  it  is  ? 

Roger.  South- West.  It  flows  North,  into  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea. 

Teacher.  Yes.  This  river  rises  among  high  moun- 
tains, and  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year  the  snow  melts, 
and  causes  the  river  to  swell,  and  to  overflow  its  banks. 
At  such  times  the  whole  surrounding  country  was  cover- 
ed with  water.  After  a  time  the  waters  subsided,  but 
they  left  a  sort  of  sediment  upon  the  land,  which  enriched 
it,  and  made  it  very  fertile.  This  river  had  in  it  many 
noxious  animals,  such  as  crocodiles,  &>c. 

Roger.  What  sort  of  an  animal  was  the  crocodile  ? 

Teacher.  It  was  shaped  something  like  a  lizard,  but 
was  much  larger,  and  very  voracious. 

Samuel.  Egypt  is  the  country  through  which  the  Nile 
flows, — is  it  not  ? 

Teacher.  Yes :  and  it  was  on  the  banks  of  this  river 
that  Moses  was  laid,  in  his  little  ark  of  bulrushes. 

Roger.  Are  these  three,  all  the  rivers  ? 

Teacher.  No  :  there  is  one  more,  the  Jordan,  here, 
(pointing  to  J,)  East  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  You 
see  where  it  rises  :  it  flows  through  a  small  sea,  called 
the  Sea  of  Galilee,  and  at  last  it  empties  into  the  Dead 
Sea,  or  the  Salt  Sea,  as  it  was  sometimes  called. 

Samuel.  The  Jordan  is  often  mentioned  in  the  Bible, 
I  believe. 

Teacher.  Yes.  It  is  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  country 
which  the  Jews  inhabited,  and  where  Christ  lived.  The 
Israelites  crossed  it,  when  they  came  out  of  Egypt,  on 
their  way  to  the  promised  land.     These  four,  the  Tigris, 


18  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Fertile  Regions.  Deserts.  Mountainous  Regions. 

the  Euphrates,  the  Nile,  and  the  Jordan,  are  the  princi- 
pal rivers. 

Roger,  I  suppose  the  five  seas  and  the  four  rivers  are 
not  all  the  bodies  of  water  in  these  countries. 

Teacher.  No.  There  are  several  smaller  seas  and 
lakes,  and  also  brooks  and  small  rivers ;  but  I  am  now 
only  endeavoring  to  give  you  a  general  view  of  the 
natural  geography,  and  of  course  only  mention  the  more 
important ;  and  I  shall  now  proceed  to  the  natural  di- 
visions of  the  land. 

John.  I  believe,  Sir,  I  can  tell  some  of  the  divisions 
of  the  land. 

Teacher.  Well,  what  are  they  ? 

John.  Egypt,  Judea, 

Teacher.  (Interrupting  him.)  No  :  those  are  not  natu- 
ral divisions.  Those  are  names,  which  were  given  to  the 
various  parts  of  the  country,  according  as  it  was  divided 
among  the  different  nations.  Such  divisions  as  these 
were  made  by  men,  and  are  called  civil  divisions. 

John.  Then  I  do  not  know  what  is  meant  by  natural 
divisions. 

Teacher.  I  mean  divisions  made  in  consequence  of 
some  difference  existing  in  nature.  There  are  three, 
which  I  shall  describe. 

1.  Fertile  regions. 

2.  Deserts. 

3.  Mountainous  regions. 

Samuel.  Is  that  what  these  colors  on  the  map  mean  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  The  fertile  regions  are  colored  green. 
There  are  several  of  them.  One  is  on  the  banks  of  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates,  here,  (pointing  to  the  map)  this 
part,  colored  green.  It  was  on  this  spot  that  the  garden 
of  Eden  is  supposed  to  have  been.  The  Babylonian  and 
Assyrian  empires  were  seated  here. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  19 

First  and  second  Fertile  Regions. 

Samuel.  Is  it  probable  that  this  spot  was  made  fertile 
by  the  rivers  ? 

Teacher.  I  do  not  know  that  it  was.  It  is  at  least 
probable  that  the  rivers  increased  its  fertility.  This  spot 
is  the  scene  of  scripture  history,  from  the  creation  to  the 
time  when  Abraham  was  called  out  of  his  country. 

A  second  fertile  spot  is  here,  (pointing  to  d.) 

What  sea  is  this,  John,  West  of  it? 

John.  The  Mediterranean  Sea. 

Teacher.  And  what  water,  Roger,  is  East  of  it  ? 

Roger.  The  river  Jordan,  and  the  Dead  Sea. 

Teacher.  Yes :  this  fertile  spot,  though  smaller,  is  more 
important  in  scripture  history  than  the  others.  It  was 
here  that  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  lived.  The  He- 
brews too,  returned  here  after  their  captivity  in  Egypt ; 
and  here  our  Saviour  lived  and  died. 

Roger.  Ought  we  not  to  know  something  more  about 
it,  than  what  is  drawn  on  the  map  ? 

Teacher.  Yes :  and  by  and  by  I  mean  to  show  you  a 
larger  map  of  this  spot,  in  which  will  be  put  down  all 
which  it  is  important  for  you  to  know.  I  am  now,  you 
know,  only  trying  to  give  you  a  general  idea  of  the  whole, 
and  do  not  therefore  stop  to  examine  the  particular  parts 
carefully  at  present.  This  will  be  done  hereafter.  Let 
us  therefore  pass  on  to  the  third  fertile  region,  here  on 
each  side  of  the  Nile. 

Samuel.  This  is  the  country  of  the  Egyptians, — is  it  not? 

Teacher.  Yes,  it  is.  It  was  a  very  fertile  spot,  and  its 
fertility  was  caused  by  the  overflowings  of  the  Nile,  of 
which  I  have  spoken  before. 

Samuel.  Was  not  this  the  country  where  the  children 
of  Israel  were  in  bondage  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  it  was.  These  three  territories  are  the 
most  noted  in  scripture  history,  though  you  see  there  are 


20  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Deserts.  Mode  of  Travelling. 


other  regions  here,  (pointing  to  r  r  r,)  North  of  the 
Mediterranean,  which  were  fertile,  and  in  later  times 
became  very  populous.  The  Grecian  and  Roman  em- 
pires were  established  upon  them.  They  are,  however, 
of  less  importance  in  the  study  of  the  Bible.  We  will 
pass  on,  therefore,  to  the  deserts. 

John.  What  are  deserts  ? 

Teacher.  They  were  barren,  sandy  plains,  uninhabited 
and  desolate,  almost  entirely  without  plants  or  animals,  or 
streams  of  water.  They  were  sometimes  hundreds  of 
miles  in  extent. 

Roger.  How  dismal  and  dreary  they  must  have  been. 

Teacher.  They  were  so.  Sometimes  the  air  over  these 
deserts  was  calm;  and  then  the  sands  were  heated  in- 
tensely by  the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  almost  every  living 
thing  exposed  to  them  was  scorched  and  destroyed. 
There  were  also,  at  times,  hot  winds,  storms  and  tem- 
pests, which  filled  the  air  with  dust  and  sand,  and  made 
the  surface  of  the  plain  roll  like  waves  of  the  sea. 

Roger.  I  suppose,  then,  that  no  men  ever  lived  upon 
these  deserts  ? 

Teacher.  No  :  but  men  travelled  across  them  some- 
times. They  rode,  in  such  cases,  upon  camels,  large 
animals,  which  have  the  power  of  supporting  themselves 
at  a  single  draught  with  drink  for  many  days. 

Samuel.  Has  not  the  camel  a  large  bunch  on  his  back? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  some  kinds  have  two  bunches.  These 
animals  were  very  docile  and  gentle.  They  would  kneel, 
at  the  command  of  their  drivers,  to  be  unloaded. 

John.  Why  ?  Were  they  so  large  that  they  could  not 
put  on  the  loads  without  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  they  were  very  large.  But  I  must  tell 
you  where  these  deserts  were.     They  are  colored  yellow 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE.  21 

Arabia.  Abraham's  Journey. 

on  the  map.  One  was  here,  (pointing  to  D,  1.)  Samuel, 
can  you  tell  between  what  seas  it  lies  1 

Samuel.  This  sea,  (pointing  to  P,)  on  the  East,  is  the 
Persian  Gulf,  and  this,  (pointing  to  R,)  is  the  Red  Sea, 
on  the  West. 

Teacher.  This  desert  was  very  large  and  barren.  It 
was  called  the  Desert  of  Arabia.  It  separates  this  fertile 
district,  (pointing  to  the  green  spot  about  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates,)  from  this  one  near  the  Mediterranean, 
(pointing  to  d.)  Now  you  remember  that  man  was  crea- 
ted on  the  first  of  these  ;  and  after  some  time,  Abraham 
was  called  to  come  out  from  that  country,  and  to  go  to 
another  land,  which  was  this,  (pointing  to  d.)  On  the 
journey  he  had  to  cross  this  desert ;  but  he  crossed  it 
here  in  the  North  part,  (pointing  to  n,)  near  the  border 
of  it,  where  it  was  not  so  sandy  and  barren,  and  where 
there  were  many  trees  and  plants. 

John.  Did  he  travel  upon  a  camel  ? 

Teacher.  We  might  learn,  perhaps,  by  looking  into  the 
Bible ;  but  we  will  not  stop  now,  as  we  shall  examine  that 
account  some  other  evening.  I  will  now  show  you  the 
other  deserts.  There  are  two  of  them  here,  (pointing 
to  D,  2,  and  D,  3,)  on  each  side  of  the  fertile  region 
made  by  the  Nile. 

Roger.  Was  it  probably  all  desert  between  these  two, 
until  the  Nile  made  it  fertile  1 

Teacher.  It  is  very  probable.  The  Nile,  as  I  said  be- 
fore, brings  down  great  quantities  of  rich  soil,  and  deposits 
it  upon  this  plain.  Much  of  this  is,  however,  carried 
down  to  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  deposited  there  ;  so 
that  the  land  now  extends  out  farther  into  the  sea  here, 
(pointing  to  m,)  than  it  does  on  each  side. 

Samuel.  That  is  very  remarkable.  Is  it  so  with  any 
other  rivers  ? 


22  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Wildernesses.  Mountains. 

Teacher.  You  can  tell,  by  looking  at  maps,  when  you 
get  home.  You  can  find  the  mouths  of  great  rivers,  and 
see  what  is  the  shape  of  the  coast  there. 

John.  I  mean  to  look  in  my  atlas,  this  evening. 

Teacher.  Well,  we  must  not  forget  that  wTe  are  studying 
about  the  deserts.  I  wish  you  all  to  look  here,  at  the 
North  part  of  this  desert,  on  the  East  side  of  the  Nile, 
(pointing  to  the  country  about  c,)  where  it  joins  the  desert 
of  Arabia,  round  the  northern  extremity  of  the  Red  Sea. 
There  was  a  tract  of  land  here,  called  a  wilderness, 
which  was  not  entirely  sandy,  like  the  desert,  but  it  was 
quite  barren,  supporting  but  very  few  plants  or  trees,  and 
consequently  uninhabited.  It  was  through  this  that  the 
children  of  Israel  travelled  forty  years,  in  going  from 
Egypt  to  Canaan.  Here  you  see  is  Egypt,  (pointing  to 
the  country  on  each  side  of  the  Nile,)  and  here,  (point- 
ing to  d,)  is  Canaan,  to  which  they  were  going. 

John.  Are  all  these  deserts  there  now  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  and  travellers  very  often  cross  them,  and 
write  accounts  of  them,  which  are  afterwards  printed. 
But  I  must  go  on  to  describe  the  mountainous  regions. 
They  are  shaded  dark  upon  the  map. 

John.  Yes  :    here  is  one,  (pointing  to  L.) 

Teacher.  The  mountains  marked  there  are  called  the 
Mountains  of  Lebanon.  They  covered  a  very  large  tract 
of  country,  making  it  rough  and  broken  with  rocks  and 
precipices.  Down  near  the  level  country,  where  the 
ranges  were  not  so  high,  the  hills  were  covered  with 
very  lofty  cedars,  very  often  spoken  of  in  the  Bible  ;  but 
farther  back,  the  land  rose  higher  and  higher  :  it  became 
barren  and  desolate,  and  the  loftiest  summits  were  cover- 
ed with  perpetual  snow. 

Samuel,  What  is  the  reason  that  high  mountains  are 
always  covered  with  snow  ? 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  23 

Snow  upon  Mountains.  Ararat. 

Teacher.  I  do  not  know  what  the  reason  is.  But  it  is 
a  fact,  I  believe,  that  it  is  always  very  cold  at  great 
heights  above  the  surface  of  the  sea,  even  in  the  warm- 
est countries. 

Roger.  That  is  very  singular,  certainly.  Does  not  any 
body  know  the  reason  ? 

Teacher.  I  believe  several  explanations  have  been  made 
of  it ;  but  they  are  not  very  easily  understood,  and  not 
very  satisfactory.     But  there  is  no  doubt  about  the  fact. 

Roger.  Is  there  not  a  branch  of  these  mountains  here, 
(pointing  to  d,)  running  down  through  the  land  of  Ca- 
naan ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  I  shall  describe  this  range,  however, 
more  particularly  by  and  by.  Here  is  another  moun- 
tainous region,  (pointing  to  U.)  The  range  of  moun- 
tains is  called  Caucasus.  There  is  one  more  which  I 
shall  mention  ;  here,  (pointing  to  A,)  the  mountains  of 
Ararat.  It  is  supposed  that  the  ark  rested  here,  after 
the  deluge. 

Roger.  Is  it  not  certain  that  the  ark  rested  upon  Mount 
Ararat  1    The  Bible  says  so. 

Teacher.  Yes,  it  is  certain  that  the  ark  rested  upon  a 
mountain  then  called  Ararat ;  but  this  may  be  a  different 
mountain,  though  it  has  now  the  same  name.  There  has 
been  a  great  deal  of  debate  on  this  subject.  Several 
mountains  have  been  supposed,  by  different  writers,  to 
be  the  one  mentioned  in  the  Bible  ;  but  most  writers  ap- 
pear to  suppose  it  was  here. 

Samuel.  Is  there  any  uncertainty  about  other  places 
mentioned  in  the  Bible  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  about  the  precise  situation.  Ancient 
writers  were  not  so  accurate  in  mentioning  distances 
and  directions  as  is  common  now.  No  geographies  were 
written,  and  no  maps  drawn,  so  that  the  means  of  infor- 


24  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Maps.  The  Teacher's  Questions. 

mation  are  very  small,  and  our  knowledge  must  of  course 
be  very  general  and  imperfect. 

Roger.  But  I  thought  there  were  maps  of  these  coun- 
tries, with  all  the  places  marked  exactly  upon  them. 

Teacher.  No :  the  places  are  not  always  marked  cor- 
rectly. They  are  put  down  as  nearly  as  they  can  be 
ascertained.  You  will  find,  however,  by  looking  at  any 
two  ancient  maps  of  the  same  countries,  which  are 
made  by  different  persons,  that  they  are  very  different. 
All  the  small  turns  in  the  rivers,  the  direction  of  the 
coasts,  the  precise  places  of  the  towns,  and  the  shapes  of 
the  countries,  vary  much.  In  almost  all  important  re- 
spects, however,  they  agree ;  for  almost  every  thing 
which  is  important,  in  enabling  us  to  understand  the 
Bible,  is  certain. 

Roger.  How  far  is  it  from  America,  Sir,  to  those  coun- 
tries which  you  have  been  describing  ? 

Teacher.  Oh,  it  is  several  thousand  miles — almost  half 
around  the  globe. 

As  he  said  this,  the  teacher  told  the  boys  that  it  was 
about  time  to  close  the  lesson  for  that  evening ;  but 
before  they  went  away,  he  wished  to  ask  them  some 
questions,  so  that  he  might  see  whether  they  remem- 
bered what  he  had  told  them.  He  then  pointed  to  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  map,  asking  them  a  great  many  ques- 
tions, such  as,  What  sea  is  this  ?  What  is  the  name  of 
this  river  ?  What  is  this  spot,  colored  yellow  ?  And  a 
great  many  other  similar  questions.  He  then  rolled  up 
the  map,  and  asked  them  how  many  great  seas  there 
were  about  the  countries  mentioned  in  the  Bible  ; — what 
their  names  were  ; — where  each  one  was,  and  for  what 
it  was  remarkable.  He  did  the  same  with  the  rivers, 
and  with  the  natural  divisions  of  the  land  :  and  when  he 
had  thus  ascertained  that  the  bovs  had  remembered  well 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  25 

Curious  circumstance; — Mouths  of  rivers. 

what  he  had  told  them,  they  all  rose  from  the  table,  and 
the  boys  went  away. 

They  walked  along  together,  talking  of  what  they  had 
heard,  until  they  arrived  opposite  to  the  house  where 
John  lived.  John  asked  them  to  go  in  and  look  with 
him  into  his  atlas,  at  the  mouths  of  the  rivers,  to  see 
whether  the  land  was  extended  out  into  the  sea,  as  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Nile.  They  accordingly  went  in,  and 
they  found  John's  sister  and  his  mother  sitting  by  the 
side  of  the  fire,  at  work.  John  told  them  that  they  were 
come  to  look  at  some  maps,  and  went  and  brought  his 
atlas,  and  they  all  sat  down  around  the  table  and  looked 
at  it,  but  they  could  not  find  any  rivers  whose  mouths 
looked  like  that  of  the  Nile.  While  they  were  examining 
the  atlas,  John's  sister  went  out  and  presently  returned 
with  another  atlas,  which  she  said  was  an  ancient  one. 
She  brought  it  to  them,  and  asked  whether  it  would  not 
help  them  in  finding  what  they  wanted. 

Samuel.  We  are  looking  at  the  mouths  of  the  rivers. 
The  teacher  told  us  that  the  River  Nile  washed  down 
from  the  mountains  a  great  deal  of  soil  every  year,  and 
deposited  it  along  the  banks  and  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  and  that  by  this  means  the  land  at  the  mouth  had 
been  gradually  forming  out  farther  and  farther  towards 
the  sea.  We  were  trying  to  find  some  other  rivers  that 
are  so. 

John.  And  we  have  looked  at  a  great  many,  and  they 
are  all  different. 

The  Sister.  Have  you  looked  at  the  Mississippi  ? 

Roger.  No.     That  is  in  North  America.     Here  it  is. 

The  boys  examined  the  Mississippi,  and  found  that  it 

was  like  the  Nile.     The  land  at  its  mouth  extended  out 

into  the  sea,  forming  a  cape,  and  the  river  flowed  over 

it,    and  emptied  into   the    sea  at  the  extremity   of  the 

3 


26  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Age  of  the  world.  Travels  in  the  Desert. 

cape.  And  they  supposed  that  this  land  had  been  formed 
by  earth,  which  had  been  washed  down  by  the  river 
and  deposited  at  its  mouth. 

Roger.  I  wonder  whether  these  capes  grow  any  now, 
every  year,  by  the  earth  that  is  washed  down  1 

The  Sister.  I  have  read  that  they  do.  Some  men  once 
tried  to  prove  that  the  Bible  is  not  true,  by  bringing 
reasons  to  show  that  the  earth  has  existed  a  much  longer 
time  than  the  Bible  says, 

John.  What  were  the  reasons? 

The  Sister.  I  do  not  know  exactly,  but  it  was  proved 
by  these  rivers,  in  some  way,  that  the  world  has  not  ex- 
isted any  longer  than  is  said  in  the  Bible. 

Roger.  We  will  ask  the  teacher  more  about  it  the  next 
time  we  go. 

The  boys  then  looked  into  the  ancient  atlas  to  find  a 
map  like  the  one  which  the  teacher  had  shown  them. 
They  found  one  which  had  the  seas  upon  it,  and  the 
rivers  ;  but  the  mountains  were  made  quite  different,  and  it 
was  divided  into  countries,  and  was  covered  with  names. 
John  tried  to  find  some  of  the  deserts  colored  yellow, 
to  show  his  sister,  but  they  were  not  represented  upon 
that  map.  His  sister  said  that  she  had  been  reading 
lately  an  account  of  travels  in  the  desert,  and  she  would 
bring  the  book  and  show  them  the  place.  She  wrent  out, 
and  soon  returned  again,  bringing  a  book,  which  she 
said  were  the  travels  of  a  certain  Mr.  Wood.  She  read 
from  it  the  following  passage  : — 

"  We  left  Hassia  with  an  escort  of  the  best  Arab 
horsemen,  belonging  to  the  Aga,  armed  with  guns  and 
long  pikes." 

John.  What  is  the  Aga  ? 

The  Sister.  I  believe  it  was  a  sort  of  a  chief,  who  gave 
Mr.  Wood  some  of  his  soldiers  to  protect  him.     (She 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  27 


Houses.  Water.  Caravan. 

reads.)  "  And  having  crossed  a  barren  plain,  which 
scarcely  produces  vegetables  sufficient  to  feed  the  ante- 
lopes we  saw  there,  we  arrived  at  Sudud.  This  is  a 
small  village ;  the  houses  are  built  of  bricks,  dried  in  the 
sun ;  and  the  inhabitants  cultivate  only  as  much  land 
about  the  village  as  is  barely  sufficient  for  their  sub- 
sistence. The  next  day  we  continued  to  travel  in  the 
same  direction,  and  arrived  at  Carieteen.  We  thought 
proper  to  remain  here  the  rest  of  the  day,  as  well  to  wait 
for  the  rest  of  the  escort,  which  the  Aga  had  ordered 
to  accompany  us,  as  to  prepare  our  retinue  and  our  cattle 
for  the  fatigue  they  were  to  suffer  during  the  rest  of  our 
journey.  For,  though  we  could  not  perform  it  in  less 
than  twenty  four  hours,  we  were  obliged  to  travel  so  long 
without  repose,  there  being  no  water  in  that  part  of  the 
desert. 

"  We  left  Carieteen  at  ten  in  the  morning,  which  was 
much  too  late  ;  but  our  company  became  much  more 
difficult  to  manage  in  proportion  as  they  became  more 
numerous.  This  bad  conduct  occasioned  our  being  ex- 
posed to  the  heat  of  two  days  before  our  beasts  could 
obtain  either  rest  or  water ;  and,  though  it  was  early  in 
the  season,  the  sand  reflected  the  heat  of  the  sun  with 
great  violence,  while  we  had  neither  the  slightest  breeze 
to  refresh  us,  nor  the  least  shade  to  shelter  us  from  its 
beams. 

"  Our  company  was  now  much  increased  by  its  being 
joined  by  some  merchants,  so  that  it  consisted  of  about 
two  hundred  persons,  and  nearly  the  same  number  of 
beasts  of  burden,  which  formed  a  grotesque  mixture." 

Roger.  Why  did  they  travel  in  such  a  large  company  ? 

The  Sister.  I  believe  they  always  do  go  across  these 
deserts  in  large  companies,  called  caravans,  to  protect 


28  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Arab  horsemen.  Mock  fights. 

themselves  better  from  robbers  and  wild  beasts.  (She 
reads.)  "  Our  guide  told  us  we  were  now  in  the  most 
dangerous  part  of  our  journey,  and  desired  us  to  submit 
entirely  to  his  orders,  which  were,  that  the  domestics 
should  keep"  with  the  baggage,  immediately  behind  our 
guard  of  Arab  horsemen,  from  which  were  dispatched 
one,  two  or  more  horsemen  on  the  discovery,  to  all  the 
eminences  before  us,  where  they  stayed  till  we  came 
up  with  them.  These  horsemen  always  quitted  the  cara- 
van on  a  full  gallop. 

"  The  road  here  was  through  a  level  sandy  plain, 
bounded  by  a  chain  of  barren  mountains.  Through  the 
whole  course,  there  is  neither  a  tree  nor  a  drop  of  water. 
But  to  take  off  our  attention  from  the  fatigue  we  endured, 
our  Arab  horsemen  diverted  us,  from  time  to  time,  by  en- 
gaging in  mock  fights.  At  night,  they  usually  sat  in  a 
circle  to  drink  coffee  and  smoke  a  pipe ;  and  in  the  mean 
time  one  of  the  company  diverted  the  rest  by  singing 
a  song,  or  relating  a  piece  of  history,  or  a  tale." 

After  John's  sister  had  read  this,  she  said  that  she  be- 
lieved that  this  was  all  which  related  to  the  desert ;  and 
she  shut  the  book,  and  the  boys  soon  after  went  home. 

It  was  two  or  three  days  after  this,  that  Roger  met  the 
teacher,  walking  in  the  road  ;  and  he  stopped  to  inquire 
of  him  about  the  mouths  of  the  rivers.  He  said  that 
John's  sister  had  told  them  that  there  was  some  way  of 
proving  how  old  the  world  was  by  these  ;  and  he  asked 
him  if  he  would  explain  it  to  him.  The  teacher  stood 
a  moment  thinking,  and  then  said  that  if  Roger  would 
speak  to  John  and  Samuel,  and  all  three  would  call  at 
his  house  on  Saturday  afternoon,  he  would  take  a  walk 
with  them,  and  talk  about  it.     They  accordingly  did  so. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  29 

*  The  walk.  The  brook  and  the  pond. 

Early  on  Saturday  afternoon  they  called  at  the  door  of 
the  teacher's  house,  and  he  very  soon  came  out,  and  they 
commenced  their  walk. 

After  they  had  proceeded  a  little  way,  they  turned 
aside  from  the  road,  through  a  gate,  and  went  across  a 
field.  Soon  they  entered  a  wood,  and  began  to  descend 
a  hill ;  and  in  the  valley  below,  -hey  saw  a  brook  running 
very  rapidly  over  rocks  and  sands.  When  they  came  to 
the  brook,  they  found  that  in  many  places  the  rocks  were 
decayed  and  crumbling,  and  the  banks  had  evidently 
been  worn  away  by  the  water,  and  had  caved  in.  The 
teacher  explained  to  them  that  the  water  was  constantly 
washing  away  the  banks,  and  wrearing  the  decayed  stones ; 
and  he  pointed  out  to  them  little  banks  of  sand  in  the 
bottom  of  the  brook,  which  had  been  formed  by  the 
water.  He  then  told  them  that  much  of  the  earth  thus 
washed  away  was  carried  down  and  deposited  in  the 
level  land  below,  near  and  around  the  mouth  of  the 
brook  ;  and  as  it  emptied  into  a  large  mill  pond,  not  far 
from  them,  he  said  they  would  walk  down  and  see  it. 

They  walked  on  accordingly,  along  the  bank  of  the 
brook,  until  at  last  they  came  in  sight  of  a  large  pond, 
into  which  the  brook  flowed.  The  water  was  very  shal- 
low in  that  part  of  the  pond,  and  there  were  large  sand- 
banks there.  The  solid  ground  too,  at  the  mouth,  ex- 
tended out  a  considerable  distance  into  the  pond.  After 
the  boys  had  looked  at  this  some  time,  they  saw  a  boat 
with  a  man  in  it,  upon  the  pond,  coming  towards  the 
place  where  they  were.  When  he  had  rowed  the  boat 
up  to  the  shore,  and  fastened  it,  the  following  conver- 
sation took  place  : — 

Treacher.  Can  you  tell  us,  sir,  whether  the  shore  here 
was  always  shaped  as  it  is  now, — or  was  this  land  made  by 
the  brook  ? 

3* 


30  CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  experiment  and  calculation. 

Boatman.  Oh,  the  land  makes  out  here  every  year,  by 
the  brook ;  and  it  has  ever  since  the  dam  was  built. 
Here  is  a  stake  (pointing  to  a  low  stake  about  ten  feet 
from  the  place  where  the  brook  ran  into  the  pond,)  which 
I  drove  down  to  fasten  my  boat  to,  about  a  year  ago. 
It  was  then  upon  the  shore  of  the  pond,  and  now  you  see 
the  land  has  made  out  as  much  as  ten  feet  beyond  it. 

Roger.  Does  it  make  ten  feet  every  year  ? 

Boatman.  I  do  not  know  that  it  does  exactly  as  much 
as  that  every  year.  It  depends  some  upon  the  rains.  I 
should  think  it  was  not  far  from  that. 

Teacher.  Then  you  see,  boys,  if  we  knew  how  far  this 
land  projects  into  the  pond,  and  allow  one  year  for  every 
ten  feet,  we  can  tell  pretty  nearly  how  long  it  is  since  this 
pond  was  made  by  building  the  mill-dam  below. 

Samuel.  I  wish  we  could  measure  it. 

Teacher.  I  think  I  can  measure  it  tolerably  well  by 
pacing  it. 

So  saying,  the  teacher  paced  the  ground,  and  said  he 
thought  it  was  not  far  from  forty  feet  from  the  present 
mouth  of  the  brook,  into  where  he  supposed  the  brook 
met  the  shore  of  the  pond  at  first.  He  then  asked  Sam- 
uel to  make  the  calculation  ;  and,  after  thinking  a  moment, 
Samuel  said  that  it  would  take  four  years  to  make  forty 
feet,  if  ten  feet  was  made  every  year.  The  teacher  said 
that  was  right ;  and  then  asked  the  boatman,  if  he  could 
tell  them  how  long  it  was  since  the  pond  was  made. 

Boatman.  It  is  not  so  much  as  that.  I  believe  it  is 
only  about  three  years. 

Roger.  Then  we  did  not  get  it  right. 

Teacher.  No  :  not  exactly  right ;  but  it  is  as  near  as 
we  could  expect  by  such  a  kind  of  calculation. 

By  this   time,  the   boatman   had   gone   away   into  the 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  31 

Natural  indications  of  the  age  of  the  world. 

bushes,  and  the  teacher  and  the  boys  began  to  walk  slow- 
ly along  by  the  shore  of  the  pond.  They  continued 
talking  as  follows  : — 

Teacher.  It  is  in  the  same  way  that  they  make  calcu- 
lations from  the  mouth  of  the  Nile,  to  prove  about  how 
old  the  world  is.  Some  men  have  said  that  the  world  is 
a  great  deal  older  than  the  Bible  says,  and  have  therefore 
tried  to  make  men  believe  that  the  Bible  does  not  come 
from  God. 

Samuel.  What  reason  have  they  for  thinking  so  ? 

Teacher.  They  have  thought  so  from  the  appearances 
of  some  rocks,  in  various  parts  of  the  world  ;  and  then 
there  are  some  books  in  eastern  countries,  which  say 
that  the  world  has  been  made  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
years. 

Samuel.  And  did  they  make  a  calculation  from  the 
land  at  the  mouth  of  the  Nile  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  A  man  endeavored  to  ascertain  how 
much  has  been  made,  during  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  past, 
and  from  that  to  calculate  how  long  the  whole  has  been 
making.  He  made  similar  calculations  from  some  other 
changes  which  are  taking  place  in  various  parts  of  the 
world,  such  as  the  crumbling  down  of  the  sides  of  preci- 
pices, filling  up  of  bays,  and  the  progress  of  the  sands  of 
deserts,  moved  by  the  winds. 

Roger.  How  did  these  calculations  come  out  ? 

Teacher.  It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  from  them,  with 
accuracy,  how  long  it  is  since  the  creation  of  the  world  ; 
but  they  show  that  it  must  be  about  as  long  as  the  Bible 
declares.  They  prove  positively  that  it  cannot  possibly 
have  been  as  long  as  is  stated  in  these  other  accounts. 

You  will  find,  boys,  the  older  you  grow,  and  the  more 
you  read   and   study,  that  many   arguments   have   been 


32  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  end  of  the  walk. 

invented  against  the  Bible  ;  but  when  they  are  thoroughly 
examined,  they  are  always  overthrown. 

The  party  walked  on,  talking  upon  this  and  upon 
similar  subjects,  until  they  at  last  came  out  into  the  road 
again,  and  they  then  separated,  and  went  by  different 
ways  to  their  several  homes. 


Aomin-Ac  Smith        S  onef«U«i'  LatTx. Co 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  33 

Scripture  History.  Map. 


CONVERSATION  III. 

FIRST  PERIOD  OF  SACRED  HISTORY. 

Teacher.  Samuel,  can  you  tell  me  what  was  the  sub- 
ject of  our  first  conversation,  which  we  had  a  fortnight 
ago? 

Samuel  It  was  the  reasons  for  believing  that  the  Bible 
comes  from  God. 

Teacher.  And,  Roger,  can  you  tell  me  what  was  the 
subject  of  the  last  conversation  ? 

Roger.  It  was  the  geography  of  the  Bible. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  it  was  a  general  view  of  the  natural 
condition  of  the  countries  which  were  the  scene  of  scrip- 
ture history.  We  now  come  upon  another  great  subject, 
Scripture  History,  itself. 

Samuel.  Can  we  not  read  this  history  in  the  Bible,  and 
so  have  you  explain  something  else  to  us  now? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  you  can  read  it ;  but  it  is  very  long,  and 
contained  in  a  great  many  books,  scattered  along  through 
the  whole  Bible.  Now  it  will  help  you  very  much  to  un- 
derstand and  to  remember  the  whole  of  this,  if  first  I  give 
you  a  general  view  of  the  whole,  mentioning  the  princi- 
pal events  in  their  order,  and  showing  you  the  places 
where  they  happened,  upon  the  map. 

John.  Upon  the  map  which  you  showed  us  last  week  ? 

Teacher.  No  :  upon  some  other  maps  which  I  have 
drawn.  Here  is  one  for  this  evening,  (unrolling  a  map 
like  the  one  opposite  this  page.) 


34  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Explanation  of  the  Map. 

John.  This  is  just  about  as  large  as  the  other  one,  but 
it  looks  very  different. 

Roger.  Is  it  a  map  of  the  same  country  1 

Teacher.  You  may  all  examine  it,  and  see  if  you  can 
tell. 

Samuel.  I  should  think  it  was  a  map  of  part  of  the 
same  country.  Here  is  a  part  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
and  of  the  Persian  Gulf;  but  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Cas- 
pian Sea  are  not  put  down.  It  does  not  reach  so  far 
North  as  those  seas. 

Teacher.  Yes.  It  is  a  map  of  part  of  the  region  laid 
down  on  the  other ;  and  I  will  show  you  what  part  it  is 
that  is  marked  upon  the  other. 

So  saying,  the  teacher  took  down  tha  other  map,  and 
showed    them   the  square    marked    by  the    dotted    line, 

y  y  y  y>  upon  it. 

Teacher.  This  second  map  contains  only  what  is  with- 
in these  dotted  lines  on  the  first.  But  you  see  the  paper 
is  just  as  large  as  the  other,  and  therefore  all  the  parts 
may  be  made  much  larger,  and  you  can  see  them  more 
distinctly. 

John.  But  this  map  is  colored  very  differently  from  the 
other.    I  do  not  see  the  deserts  and  mountains. 

Teacher.  No.  I  have  marked  the  countries  on  this 
map,  because  this  is  to  study  the  history  with. 

Roger.  But  why  do  you  take  this  particular  portion  of 
the  other  map  ? 

Teacher.  I  am  going  to  explain  that  to  you.  I  shall 
divide  the  whole  time  of  the  history  into  several  portions, 
and  shall  make  a  map  for  each  portion  or  period.  This 
one  is  for  the  first  period.  Under  each  period  I  shall 
describe  the  principal  events  which  took  place ;  the  man- 
ners and  customs  of  the  people  ;  also  their  government 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Creation.  Sabbath  instituted. 

and  laws,   and  the  particular  geography  of  the   country. 
To-night  we  shall  attend  to  the  First  Period. 

Samuel  How  far  does  the  first  period  extend  ? 

Teacher.  From  the  Creation  to  the  settlement  of  the 
Jews  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  I  shall  go  on  now  to  give 
you  a  short  account  of  what  took  place  in  that  time  ;  and 
I  wish  you,  whenever  you  please,  to  ask  me  any  questions 
about  what  I  shall  say. 

The  Bible  begins  with  an  account  of  the  creation  of 
the  world.  God  spent  six  days  in  this  work,  and  when 
they  were  ended,  and  he  had  created  the  sun,  the  moon, 
and  the  stars, — the  ocean  and  the  land, — trees,  plants 
and  flowers, — the  various  tribes  of  animals, — and  lastly, 
Adam  and  Eve,  he  rested  from  his  labors  on  the  seventh 
day.  He  commanded  also  that  all  mankind  should  ob- 
serve that  day,  and  keep  it  holy. 

Samuel.  I  never  thought  before  that  the  establishment 
of  the  Sabbath  was  the  first  command  that  God  ever  gave 
to  men. 

Teacher.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact.  His  making  the 
command  at  this  time,  and  without  limiting  it  to  any 
particular  people,  shows  that  he  meant  it  to  be  observed 
by  all  nations,  and  in  all  ages.  And  yet  some  persons  ha've 
thought  that  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath  was  required 
of  the  Jews  alone ;  that  God  only  meant  the  command  to 
be  a  part  of  the  law  of  that  nation.  They  forget  that  it 
was  established  long  before  the  Jewish  nation  existed. 

Roger.  But  is  it  put  down  among  the  laws  of  the 
Jews  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  but  God  seems  to  have  taken  special 
pains  to  prevent  our  supposing  that  it  was  for  them  alone. 
We  shall  find,  by  and  by,  that  the  laws  of  the  Jews  were 
of  two  kinds  :  one  kind  were  those  which  were  for  that 
nation  only  ;  they  related  to  ceremonies,  &c.     The  other 


36  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  sin  of  Adam  and  Eve. 

kind  were  those  which  it  is  the  duty  of  every  person  in 
the  world  to  obey.  These  are  the  ten  commandments, 
as  they  are  called.  Now  the  command  to  keep  the  Sab- 
bath holy,  was  written  with  these,  upon  tables  of  stone, 
while  the  others  were  only  written  in  a  sort  of  book  ;  as 
if  God  wished  to  show  us  that  the  Sabbath,  which  he 
had  instituted  as  soon  as  the  world  was  finished,  was 
designed  for  all  mankind.  However,  we  must  proceed 
with  the  history. 

When  Adam  and  Eve  wTere  created,  God  placed  them 
in  the  garden  of  Eden.  They  were  perfectly  innocent 
and  holy  ;  but  you  remember  how  they  disobeyed  God, 
by  eating  of  a  particular  tree,  which  he  commanded  them 
not  to  eat  of.  In  consequence  of  this,  God  sent  them 
away  from  the  garden,  out  into  the  wide  world. 

John.  Why  did  God  forbid  them  to  eat  of  that  tree? 
Teacher.  I  do  not  know,  and  I  suppose  they  did  not. — 
But  that  was  of  no  consequence  :    they  ought  to   have 
obeyed  God,   whether  they  knew  the  reason  of  his  com- 
mand, or  not.     Perhaps  it  was  to  try  them. 

Roger.  Do  you  think,  Sir,  it  was  a  very  great  sin, — just 
eating  a  little  fruit  ? 

Teacher.  Certainly  it  was, — a  very  great  sin  ;  because  it 
was  disobedience  of  a  plain  command  of  God.  It  makes 
no  difference,  whether  it  was  eating  fruit,  or  any  thing 
else.  Suppose  a  mother  should  lay  any  thing  down  in  a 
chair,  and  tell  her  child  not  to  touch  it ;  and  the  child 
should  disobey.  Would  it  make  any  difference  whether 
it  was  a  pin  or  a  silver  dollar  ? 

John.  No,  Sir  :  I  should  not  think  it  would. 
Samuel.    I  should   think   it  would   be  rather  worse  to 
touch  the  pin  than  the  dollar. 
Teacher.  Why? 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  37 

Eden.  The  flood.  Mount  Ararat. 

Samuel.  It  would  be  worse  to  disobey  his  mother  for 
the  sake  of  so  little  a  thing  as  a  pin. 

Teacher.  The  smallness  of  the  temptation  is  certainly 
no  excuse.  The  sin  of  Adam  and  Eve  was  a  voluntary 
and  deliberate  disobedience  of  God's  command  ;  and  if 
the  command  had  only  been  plainly  made  known  to  them, 
as  it  really  had  in  this  case,  it  makes  no  difference  what 
it  was. 

But  I  must  go  on.  The  garden  of  Eden  is  supposed 
to  have  been  here,  (pointing  to  the  place  on  the  map 
marked  Eden,  near  the  mouths  of  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates.)  When  Adam  and  Eve  had  left  it,  they 
went  out  some  where  into  the  neighboring  country,  and 
began  to  labor  for  their  bread.  After  some  time,  their 
children,  and  their  children's  children,  became  very  nu- 
merous, and  filled  all  this  country,  (pointing  to  the  coun- 
try around  Eden.)  These  persons  were,  however,  of 
very  wicked  characters  ;  and  God  at  last,  as  you  undoubt- 
edly remember,  determined  to  destroy  them  by  a  flood 
of  water.  I  need  not  describe  this  to  you,  for  you 
have  often  read  it ;  and  you  remember  how  Noah  was 
saved  in  an  Ark,  which  floated  upon  the  water  and  at 
last  rested  upon  the  mountains  of  Ararat,  which  you  see 
here,  (pointing  to  Mount  Ararat  in  the  northern  part  of 
the  map.) 

John.  How  far  did  the  ark  sail?  We  can  tell,  if  you 
know  where  it  was  built. 

Teacher.  I  believe  the  Bible  does  not  tell  us  where 
Noah  lived  ;  and  it  is  not  certain,  as  you  recollect  I  told 
you  before,  that  this  mountain  is  the  one  on  which  it 
rested. 

Samuel.  Is  it  known  how  large  a  part  of  the  earth  was 
inhabited  before  the  flood? 

eacher.  No,  it  is  not ;  and  there  are  a  great  many 
4 


38  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Chronological  calculation.  Babel. 

other  questions  about  this  subject  upon  which  little  is 
known.  The  Bible  gives  us  but  little  information  about 
the  world  before  the  flood. 

Roger.  Is  it  known  how  long  it  was  to  the  flood,  after 
the  creation  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  the  Bible  tells  that.  You  will  find,  by 
looking  into  the  fifth  chapter  of  Genesis,  that  the  ages  of 
the  patriarchs  from  Adam  to  Noah  are  given,  and  by 
adding  these  together  we  can  find  the  whole  length  of 
time.  But  if  you  do  it,  you  must  be  careful  only  to  take 
the  age  of  Adam  when  Seth  was  born,  and  the  age  of 
Seth  when  Enos  was  born,  and  so  on.  You  will  find, 
if  you  add  them  carefully,  that  it  makes  a  little  more  than 
1600  years  ; — almost  as  long  as  from  the  birth  of  Christ 
to  the  present  time. 

Roger.  It  was  much  longer  than  I  supposed. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  we  consider  the  time  short,  because  but 
few  events  in  it  are  described,  and  those  in  so  few 
chapters. 

After  the  flood,  the  earth  began  to  be  peopled  again 
by  the  children  of  Noah.  You  remember  their  attempt 
to  build  Babel,  and  the  manner  in  which  God  prevented 
it.  They  separated  at  Babel,  and  were  scattered  over 
all  the  countries  then  known.  They  continued  to  mul- 
tiply and  spread  for  many  years,  but  they  retained  the 
character  which  men  had  always  possessed  since  Adam's 
fall.  They  disobeyed  God,  neglected  his  worship,  and 
broke  his  laws. 

John.  Did  he  destroy  them  by  another  flood  ? 
Teacher.  No.     He  had   promised  not  to  do   that ;   and 
he  had  determined  on  a  very  different  plan. 

He  resolved  to  choose  some  one  family,  and  to  take 
it,  and  all  the  descendants  of  it,  under  his  special  care, — 
to  keep  them  together  in  a  nation  by  themselves,  and 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  39 

Object  of  the  call  of  Abraham.  The  time. 

to  give  them  a  fertile  and  pleasant  country  to  dwell  in  ;  to 
make  known  to  them  his  commands  and  laws  very  fully, 
and  at  last  to  bring  from  among  them  the  great  Saviour, 
which  he  had  promised  to  man  immediately  after  Adam's 
sin.  The  person,  whose  family  was  selected,  was  Abra- 
ham, a  man  who,  at  the  time  when  God  chose  him  for 
this  purpose,  lived  at  Haran  or  Padan  Aram,  which  you 
see  here,  (pointing  to  Padan  Aram  on  the  map.) 

Samuel.  What  was  the  reason  that  God  chose  Abra- 
ham, rather  than  any  other  man  1 

Teacher.  I  believe  no  reason  is  given  in  the  Bible.  It 
was  undoubtedly  right  for  him  to  choose  whom  he  would, 
and  to  leave  the  rest  of  mankind  to  themselves ;  for  all 
knew,  by  conscience  at  least,  what  God  required  of  them. 

From  this  time,  the  Bible  leaves  the  rest  of  the  world, 
and  confines  itself  to  a  history  of  what  befel  Abraham 
and  his  descendants,  until  the  Saviour  came. 

Roger.  Did  Abraham  know  that  God  had  chosen  him  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  God  appeared  to  him,  and  commanded 
him  to  leave  his  country  and  go  away  to  a  place  which 
he  would  point  out  to  him,  which  command  Abraham 
readily  obeyed.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  the  call  of 
Abraham,  which  is  often  mentioned  in  history.  You  can 
ascertain  how  long  it  was  after  the  flood,  in  the  way 
which  I  described  to  you  for  finding  the  time  of  the 
deluge. 

Samuel.  Are  the  ages  of  the  patriarchs  given  for  this 
time  too  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  in  the  eleventh  chapter  of  Genesis  there 
is  a  list  of  patriarchs,  from  Noah  down  to  Abraham.  I 
wish  you  would  all  look  it  out,  when  you  go  home,  and 
add  the  ages,  and  tell  me  how  long  it  was,  when  you 
come,  next  week. 

Roger.    We  will.      I  never  knew  before  what  those 


40  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Chapters  of  names.  Abraham's  journey. 

chapters  of  names  were  for.  I  used  to  think  it  would  be 
better  not  to  have  them  in  the  Bible. 

Teacher.  We  must  never  suppose  any  part  of  the  Word 
of  God  to  be  useless,  even  if  we  do  not  know  what  its 
use  is. 

John.  But  why  could  not  the  whole  time  be  put  down 
at  once,  without  writing  this  whole  chapter  of  names  ? 

Teacher.  There  is  a  very  good  reason,  which,  however, 
I  cannot  stop  to  explain  now.  We  must  go  on  with  the 
story  of  Abraham.  He  set  out  from  his  home,  with  his 
wife  and  family,  and  travelled  westward,  under  God's  di- 
rection, towards  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  There  was  a 
large  company  with  them.  He  was  a  man  of  great  pro- 
perty ;  and  in  those  times  men's  property  consisted  not  of 
houses,  and  lands,  and  money — but  of  great  flocks  of 
sheep,  and  herds  of  cattle,  and  servants  to  take  care  of 
them.  Abraham  had  a  large  train  of  this  kind  to  follow 
him.  He  travelled  slowly,  stopping  in  fertile  spots  to  feed 
his  animals  ;  and  he  built  tents  wherever  he  stopped,  for 
himself  and  his  people.  His  nephew  Lot,  too,  went  with 
him  ;  and  after  some  time,  the  whole  company  arrived  in 
the  North  part  of  Canaan,  here,  (pointing  to  the  map.) 
I  marked  his  track  by  a  dotted  line.  He  then  went  to- 
ward the  South,  through  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  and  God 
repeatedly  appeared  to  him — told  him  that  this  country 
was  the  one  which  his  descendants  were  to  live  in — and 
promised  to  be  with  him,  and  to  protect  him,  if  he  con- 
tinued obedient  and  faithful.  Abraham  journeyed  on, 
stopping  at  several  places  which  are  mentioned  in  the  ac- 
count in  the  Bible,  and  which  are  marked  upon  the  map  ; 
until  at  last,  when  he  was  in  the  southern  part  of  this 
country,  there  was  a  famine. 

John.    What  is  a  famine  ? 

Teacher.    It  is  a  scarcity  of  food,  occasioned  general!/ 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLB.  41 

The  famine.  EgypL 

. . ■    ■ ——— 7 

by  want  of  rain,   so  that  the  grain  and  the  grass   will  not 
grow.     These  were  very  common  in  this  country  :   many 
of  them  are  mentioned   in  the  Bible.     In   such  a  case,   a 
man  who  has  a  great  many  flocks   and  herds   and  people 
to  feed,   must  go  into  some  other  country,   where  there  is 
plenty,  or  they  would  all  suffer,  and  perhaps  die. 
Roger.  Why  could  they  not  send  and  bring  food  1 
Teacher.  Because  in  those  days   it  was  much  more  dif- 
ficult to  transport  things  than  it  is  now.     There  were  no 
ships,  no   roads  or  wagons  ;    and  it  took  a  great  deal  to 
feed  Abraham's  great  company.     Besides,  they  lived  only 
in  tents,  which  were  easily  taken  down  and  moved. 
John.  How  were  the  tents  made  ? 

Teacher.  There  is  no  way  of  knowing  exactly  ;  but 
there  are  now  in  those  countries  many  people  who  live  in 
the  same  way  :  they  travel  from  place  to  place  in  large 
companies,  ♦  with  flocks  and  herds,  and  live  in  tents. 
These  tents  are  now  made  of  cloth,  generally  black  cloth, 
stretched  upon  poles. 

Abraham  went  down  to  Egypt,  as  you  see  his  track 
marked  upon  the  map,  (pointing  to  the  map,)  after  food. 
Egypt  you  know  was  very  fertile,  and  well  watered  by 
the  Nile.  Here  he  remained  some  time,  and  then  re- 
turned again  to  Canaan.  But  I  must  hasten  on  more 
rapidly  with  the  story,  and  therefore  will  not  stop  to  de- 
scribe his  offering  up  Isaac,  or  the  destruction  of  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah,  which  took  place  at  this  time.  lie  died 
at  last  in  C.maan/A.  M.  2133,  or  B.  C.  1821,  leaving  his 
property  in    the  hands  of  Isaac  his  son. 

Isaac  and  his  son  Jacob,  spent  their  lives  too  in  this 
country.  They  had  no  settled  home  in  it,  but  they  wan- 
dered about  as  Abraham  did,  among  the  various  tribes 
who  possessed  the  land.  Jacob,  you  know,  had  twelve 
sons  ;  and  you  remember  how,  in  consequence  of  their 
4* 


42  CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 

God's  care  of  his  people.  The  Exodus. 

selling  Joseph  to  some  merchants  going  to  Egypt,  and 
afterwards  going  there  themselves  to  buy  corn,  and  find- 
ing him  in  great  wealth  and  power, — the  whole  family 
removed  to  Egypt  and  settled  there.  Here  they  increased 
very  rapidly,  and  after  some  time  the  Egyptians  made 
slaves  of  them,  and  they  remained  some  hundred  years 
in  bondage. 

Samuel.  But  did  not  God  promise  to  take  care  of  them  1 

Teacher.  Yes,  and  he  was  taking  care  of  them  ;  he 
was  constantly  watching  over  them,  and  preparing  in  his 
own  time  to  bring  them  out  free.  He  undoubtedly  had 
some  good  reason  for  permitting  them  to  be  enslaved. 
God  always  takes  care  of  all  who  love  and  obey  him  ;  but 
notwithstanding  this,  he  often  brings  them  into  great  diffi- 
culties, though  always  for  some  good  reason. 

Roger.  How  did  the  children  of  Israel  get  away  from 
the  Egyptians  ? 

Teacher.  God  appeared  to  Moses,  one"  of  them,  and 
sent  him  to  Pharaoh,  to  command  him  to  let  the  people  go. 

John.  And  did  he,  Sir  1 

Teacher.  No  :  he  refused,  and  God  sent  plagues  upon 
him  and  upon  his  people,  until  he  complied.  The  last 
plague  was  causing  the  oldest  child  in  every  family  in 
Egypt  to  die  in  one  night.  Then  Pharaoh  was  very 
eager  to  have  the  Israelites  go.  He  hurried  them  away 
that  same  night;  and  they  all  set  out,  six  hundred  thou- 
sand of  them,  immediately,  on  their  journey  towards  Ca- 
naan, the  land  which  God  had  promised  to  Abraham 
should  be  theirs. 

Samuel.  Were  there  six  hundred  thousand  ?  They 
must  have  increased  very  much  while  in  Egypt. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  you  remember  it  was  only  Jacob  and 
his  sons  and  grandsons,  about  70  persons,  who  went  down 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  43 

Passover.  Journey  in  the  Wilderness. 

to  Egypt ;  and  before  they  came  out  they  had  become 
this  great  multitude. 

God  commanded  them  always  to  celebrate  the  anniver- 
sary of  their  escape  from  Egypt ;  which  they  did  in  a 
feast  held  every  year,  called  the  Passover.  This  feast 
is  very  often  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  Perhaps  I  shall 
explain  to  you  more  fully,  by  and  by,  how  this  was  kept ; 
but  at  present  I  must  proceed  with  the  story. 

They  passed  across  this  extremity  of  the  Red  Sea, 
(pointing  to  a  upon  the  map.)  It  was  here  that  Pharaoh 
and  his  army  were  drowned,  in  attempting  to  pursue  them 
to  bring  them  back. 

John.  Then  they  came  over  into  this  wilderness,  (point- 
ing to  the  wilderness  upon  the  map.) 

Teacher.  Yes:  you  remember  I  have  described  to  you 
what  sort  of  a  country  this  was.  There  was  nothing  grow- 
ing there  which  they  could  eat ;  although  there  were 
some  trees  and  plants  ;  and  often  there  was  no  water  for 
them. 

Roger.  Did  they  bring  their  provisions  with  them  ? 

iTeacher.  No.  They  were  many  years  travelling  through 
this  wilderness,  and  they  could  not  carry  enough.  They 
were  fed  with  manna,  which  God  caused  to  come  upon 
the  ground  every  night  for  them.  Water  was  obtained  for 
them  too,  by  a  miracle,  and  there  was  a  bright  cloud, 
which  shone  like  fire  in  the  night,  that  always  went  be- 
fore them  to  guide  them. 

Roger.  -How  long  did  it  take  them  to  cross  this  wilder- 
ness? 

Teacher.  They  did  not  go  directly  to  Canaan.  God 
first  led  them  to  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai,  where  they  en- 
camped for  many  days  ;  and  God  called  Moses  to  go  up 
the  mountain  alone.  Then  God  gave  Moses  the  laws 
which  the  people  were  to  obey,  both  while  they  were  trav- 


44  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Wanderings  in  the  Wilderness. 

elling  in  the  wilderness,  and  when  they  should  become 
settled  in  Canaan.  And  particularly,  he  gave  him  the 
ten  commandments,  written  upon  two  flat  pieces  of  stone. 
These  were  put  into  a  chest,  called  the  ark,  made  very 
handsomely  of  wood,  but  covered  with  gold,  and  carried 
by  the  priests  taking  hold  of  poles  fastened  to  it.  There 
were  several  other  things  made,  which  were  used  in  the 
worship  of  God,  such  as  an  altar,  &c  ;  and  there  was 
also  a  very  large  and  splendid  tent,  called  the  tabernacle, 
under  which  these  were  kept  when  they  stopped  upon 
their  journey. 

Roger.  Where  is  Mount  Sinai? 

Teacher.  You  may  try  to  find  it  upon  the  map. 

Roger.  Here  it  is,  (pointing  to  Mount  Sinai,)  near  the 
Red  Sea.  But  this  is  not  on  the  direct  way  from  Egypt 
to  Canaan. 

Teacher,  No.  God  did  not  design  to  bring  them  by 
the  shortest  way  :  he  brought  them  to  Mount  Sinai,  because 
he  desired,  for  some  good  reasons,  to  give  them  their  laws 
from  this  mountain.  Besides,  in  consequence  of  their 
ingratitude  and  neglect,  shown  soon  after  they  left  Egypt, 
he  determined  that  these  persons  should  not  enter  Canaan. 

John.  But  he  had  promised  to  Abraham  that  this  na- 
tion should  have  Canaan  to  live  in. 

Teacher.  So  he  had  ;  and  the  promise  was  to  be  ac- 
complished. God  only  meant,  now,  to  prevent  the  men 
who  were  ungrateful  and  disobedient  soon  after  they 
came  out  of  Egypt,  from  going  into  Catiaan,  and  to  keep 
them  in  the  wilderness  until  their  children  should  have 
grown  up,  and  they  themselves  should  have  died. 

Samuel.  How  Jong  did  they  stay  in  the  wilderness  ? 

Teacher.  About  forty  years.  They  wandered  about 
all  this  time,  under  the  direction  of  Moses,  remaining  but 
a  short  time  in  a  place,  and  living  in  tents,  as  Abraham 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE.  45 


The  Israelites'  right  to  Canaan. 


and  his  company  had  done.  At  last,  they  arrived  at  the 
banks  of  the  Jordan,  which  was  on  the  borders  of  the 
promised  land. 

John.  Here  is  the  river  Jordan  :  is  this  (pointing  to 
the  dotted  line  r,)  their  track  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  God  permitted  Moses  to  ascend  a 
mountain,  and  look  over  the  river  into  Canaan  ;  but  he 
was  not  allowed  to  cross.  He  died  there,  and  God  ap- 
pointed Joshua  to  succeed  him.  Then  the  Israelites 
passed  over  the  river,  and  began  to  make  war  upon  the 
inhabitants  of  Canaan,  and  to  drive  them  away. 

John.  What  right  had  they  to  do  so  ? 

Teacher.  They  had  no  right  of  themselves ;  and  they 
would  have  done  very  wrong  to  have  taken  away  from 
the  Canaanites  their  country,  had  not  God  expressly  or- 
dered them  to  do  so.  He  might  have  led  the  Canaan- 
ites away  in  a  quiet,  peaceable  manner,  to  make  room 
for  his  own  people  ;  but  he  did  not  choose  to  do  so.  Un- 
doubtedly for  some  very  good  reason  they  were  made  to 
suffer  very  much,  probably  because  they  had  been  great 
sinners  ;  and  at  last  most  of  them  were  destroyed.  The 
children  of  Israel  then  divided  the  land  among  them- 
selves, giving  to  each  tribe  a  particular  share. 

Roger.  What  was  a  tribe  ? 

Teacher.  Do  you  remember  how  many  sons  Jacob  had, 
when  he  went  down  to  Egypt  ? 

Roger.  Twelve. 

Teacher.  Yes,  and  the  descendants  of  each  of  these 
sons  were  kept  separate,  and  were  called  tribes.  These 
tribes  were  called  by  the  names  of  Jacob's  sons.  So  we 
have  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  the  tribe  of  Ephraim,  &c. 

Samuel.  But  Joseph  was  one  of  Jacob's  sons  ;  and  we 
never  hear  of  the  tribe  of  Joseph, 


46  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Tribes.  The  snow  storm. 

Teacher.  True.  And  I  will  explain  it  to  you  next  week. 
It  is  now  time  to  end  this  lesson,  as  we  have  gone  over 
the  first  great  period  in  Sacred  History,  viz.  from  the  Cre- 
ation to  the  arrival  of  the  Israelites  at  the  land  of  Canaan. 
I  wish,  however,  that  before  you  come  next  time,  you 
would  make  out  from  the  Bible  a  list  of  the  sons  of  Jacob, 
and  another  of  the  tribes  ;  so  that  we  can  compare  them, 
and  explain  better  why  there  is  not  a  tribe  of  Joseph. 

John.  I  do  not  know  where  to  look. 

Teacher.  You  must  consider  in  what  part  of  the  Bible 
it  is  probable  this  information  would  be  given,  and  then 
look  through  several  chapters,  until  you  find  it. 

Samuel.  I  rather  think  we  can  find  it. 

The  teacher  then  rolled  up  the  map,  and  the  boys  went 
home ;  but  on  the  way,  they  agreed  to  stop  some  day  after 
school,  at  noon,  and  find  the  lists  which  the  teacher  re- 
quested them  to  look  for.  They  walked  on  very  fast,  for 
it  was  a  dark  and  windy  night ;  and  before  they  reached 
home  it  began  to  snow  pretty  fast.  They  all  hoped  that 
there  was  going  to  be  a  good  snow  storm,  so  that  they 
might  slide  down  hill  and  build  snow  forts,  as  they  used 
to  do  the  last  winter  :  John  said  too  that  he  was  glad  he 
was  not  obliged  to  live,  like  Abraham,  in  a  tent,  such  a 
night  as  that.  Before  they  reached  home,  Roger  pro- 
posed that,  in  case  it  should  continue  to  snow  the  next 
day,  they  would  carry  something  for  dinner  to  the  school, 
and  remain  at  noon  ;  and  then  they  should  have  full  time 
for  the  work  which  the  teacher  had  assigned  them. 

The  next  morning  John  awoke  early,  and  looked  out 
the  window  to  see  if  it  continued  to  snow.  He  saw  that 
it  was  snowing  very  fast.  The  ground  was  covered,  and 
the  windows  almost   entirely  obscured,   so  much  had  fal- 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIRLE.  47 

John's  morning  prayer.  Samuel. 

len  in  the  night.  John  dressed  himself  immediately,  and 
read  a  chapter  in  the  Bible,  and  then  knelt  down  to 
pray,  as  his  mother  had  taught  him.  There  were  several 
things  which  he  wanted  to  ask  of  God,  which  were  not 
mentioned  in  the  prayer  which  he  had  learnt ;  and  he 
knew  that  it  was  not  necessary  to  have  words  to  express 
his  requests,  as  God  knew  all  his  thoughts  ;  so  he  con- 
tinued a  little  time  to  pray  in  his  mind.  He  asked  God 
to  take  care  of  him  that  day ;  to  keep  him  from  sickness 
and  suffering,  and  above  all  to  keep  him  from  doing  any 
thing  wrong.  He  prayed  to  be  made  dutiful  and  kind  to 
his  mother  and  sister,  and  grateful  for  all  their  goodness 
to  him  ;  to  be  kept  from  idleness  and  improper  conduct 
at  school ; — from  anger  and  pride,  and  every  other  wrong 
feeling  towards  his  play-mates.  He  prayed  too  that  God 
would  bless  his  mother  and  sister,  and  keep  them  well 
and  happy  ; — and  his  teacher  too,  for  his  goodness  in  ex- 
plaining to  him  the  Bible,  and  in  endeavoring  to  prepare 
him  for  heaven. 

When  his  morning  devotions  were  ended,  he  went 
down  stairs,  and  when  the  school  hour  arrived  he  set  off 
for  school.  He  waded  along  through  the  snow,  with  his 
dinner  under  his  arm,  until  after  a  little  time  he  saw 
Samuel  coming  up  another  road  which  led  from  his 
father's.  John  stopped  for  a  moment  to  wait  for  him. 
Samuel  had  a  little  basket  in  one  hand,  in  which  John 
supposed  he  had  put  his  dinner,  and  under  his  arm  he 
had  a  very  large  book.  As  soon  as  he  came  near  enough 
to  hear,  John  addressed  him. 

John.  What  are  you  bringing  that  great  Bible  for, 
Samuel  ?  We  have  plenty  of  little  ones  in  school,  and 
little  ones  are  the  handiest. 

Samuel.  It  is  not  a  Bible. 

John.  What  is  it,  then  ? 


48  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Cruden's  Concordance.  SchooL 

Samuel  It  is  Cruden's  Concordance.  My  father  lent 
it  to  us. 

John.  What  is  a  Concordance  ? 

Samuel.  It  is  a  book  for  finding  texts  in  the  Bible.  If 
you  can  tell  me  any  text,  I  can,  in  a  few  minutes,  tell 
you  in  what  chapter  and  verse  it  is. 

John.  How  ? 

Samuel.  All  the  words  in  the  Bible  are  put  down  in  it 
regularly,  beginning  at  A,  and  going  down  to  Z  ;  and  then 
under  each  word,  all  the  texts  which  have  that  word  in  it 
are  put  down,  and  the  chapter  and  verse  of  each  one  is 
given. 

John.  Well,  I  do  not  see  how  you  can  find  the  texts 
by  it. 

Sa?nuel.  Why,  suppose  we  want  to  find  in  what  part 
of  the  Bible  this  passage  is,  "Love  your  enemies."  Now 
first,  we  look  out  any  word,  for  instance,  enemies^  just  as  we 
should  in  a  dictionary,  and  then  we  shall  find  under  it  all 
the  verses  in  the  Bible  which  have  the  word  enemies  in 
them.  Then  I  have  only  to  look  along  there  until  I  find 
love  your  enemies. 

John.  I  believe  I  understand  it  now  ;  let  me  try  and 
see  if  I  can  find  it. 

Samuel.  No,  not  here, — it  is  snowing,  so  as  to  wet  the 
book  and  spoil  it.  You  shall  see  it  when  we  get  to 
school. 

John.  Would  it  do  to  look  any  word  in  the  text  you 
want  to  find  ?  Could  you  look  love  and  your  ? 

Samuel.  Yes,  I  believe  so.  Father  told  me,  though, 
that  it  is  best  to  look  for  one  of  the  principal  words. 

At  last,  the  boys  arrived  at  school ;  and  when  all  the 
lessons  were  finished,  and  the  school  had  been  dismissed, 
they  sat  down  together  to  their  work  in  a  seat  by  them- 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  49 

List  of  Jacob's  sons. 

selves,  with  their  Bibles  and  Cruden's  Concordance  be- 
fore them. 

What  we  have  to  do,  said  Samuel,  is  to  find  the  names 
of  the  twelve  sons  of  Jacob,  and  also  of  the  twelve  tribes 
of  Israel. 

Yes,  said  John  ;  and  the  teacher  said  we  must  look 
along  in  the  chapters  until  we  find  them.  I  will  begin 
and  look  for  the  names  of  Jacob's  sons. 

So  saying,  he  opened  at  the  beginning  of  the  Bible,  and 
began  to  look  along  the  verses  of  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis. 

Stop,  said  Samuel,  you  cannot  find  Jacob's  sons  there. 

Why  not  ?  asked  John. 

Because,  replied  Roger,  that  is  the  account  of  the  be- 
ginning of  the  world,  and  Jacob  did  not  live  until  long 
after  that. 

Then  I  suppose  we  must  look  farther  along,  said  John, 
turning  over  the  leaves  of  his  Bible.  Here  is  some- 
thing about  Abraham,  added  he,  looking  on  one  of  the 
pages. 

We  must  look  farther  than  that,  said  Samuel,  for  Abra- 
ham was  the  first, — the  head  of  the  family  which  God 
called.  Jacob  lived  after  him,  just  before  they  went  into 
Egypt. 

The  boys  continued  to  turn  over  the  leaves,  until 
they  found  where  Jacob  was  mentioned.  They  found 
several  chapters  speaking  about  him,  but  there  was  no 
list  of  his  sons,  which  they  could  find.  At  last,  Roger 
proposed  that  they  should  look  at  the  account  of  Jacob's 
going  down  into  Egypt :  he  said  he  thought  it  would  be 
very  likely  to  tell  there  how  many  sons  went  down  with 
him. 

5 


50  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Names  and  number  of  the  Tribes. 

They  accordingly  looked  for  that  place,  and  Samuel 
found  it  in  the  46th  chapter  of  Genesis.  They  found  that 
at  the  8th  verse  there  commenced  along  list  of  the  names 
of  those  who  went  down  into  Egypt.  There  were,  how- 
ever, a  great  many  more  than  twelve  ;  and  they  found, 
upon  examining  them,  that  there  were  not  only  the  names 
of  Jacob's  sons,  but  of  the  children  of  all  these  sons. 
Roger  thought  it  would  be  very  hard  to  pick  out  Jacob's 
twelve  sons  from  these  ;  but  Samuel  said  he  thought  he 
could  do  it ;  and  began  to  say,  while  he  was  looking  upon 
the  chapter,  Reuben  is  one,  in  the  ninth  verse — Simeon, 
tenth  verse,  two,  &,c.  He  stopped,  however,  in  a  mo- 
ment, and  asked  John  to  take  a  pen  and  paper,  and  write 
them  down  as  fast  as  he  should  name  them. 

While  they  were  doing  this,  Roger  was  looking  on 
farther,  in  search  of  a  better  list,  as  he  said  ;  and  before 
John  had  half  written  down  Samuel's  list,  he  interrupted 
them,  saying — 

There,  I  have  found  a  much  better  place.  Here  they 
are,  all  the  names  together — 1st  chapter  of  Exodus,  two 
or  three  of  the  first  verses.  But,  continued  he,  you  had 
better  go  on  and  finish  your  list,  and  then  we  will  see 
how  they  agree. 

When  it  was  finished,  John  read  it  aloud,  counting 
them  as  he  read.     It  was  as  follows  : — 

Reuben,  1  ;  Simeon,  2  ;  Levi,  3  ;  Judah,  4  ;  Issachar, 
5;  Zebulon,6;  Gad,  7  ;  Asher,  8  ;  Joseph,  9;  Benjamin, 
10;  Dan,  11  ;  Naphtali,  12. 

Roger  then  read  the  2d,  3d,  and  4th  verses  of  Exodus, 
counting  the  names  as  he  read  them :  Reuben,  1  ; 
Simeon,  2 ;  Levi,  3 ;  Judah,  4 ;  Issachar,  5 ;  Zebu- 
Ion,  6 ;  Benjamin,  7  ;  Dan,  8 ;  Naphtali,  9 ;  Gad,  10  ; 
Asher,  11. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  51 

Cruden's  Concordance.  The  Tribes. 

There  are  only 'eleven,  said  he  :  what  is  the  reason  of 
that? 

The  boys  then  compared  the  two  lists,  and  found  that 
Joseph's  name  was  omitted  in  the  last  list.  They  saw 
too  that  the  reason  was,  that  this  was  a  list  of  those  only 
who  came  to  Egypt  with  Jacob  ;  and  as  Joseph  was  there 
already,  his  name  was  not  down. 

Now,  said  Samuel,  we  must  find  the  list  of  the  tribes  ; 
and  I  believe  we  can  find  it  best  by  Cruden's  Concor- 
dance. 

He  explained  to  Roger,  as  he  had  already  to  John,  how 
this  book  was  used,  and  then  they  looked  for  the  word 
tribe.  They  found  under  the  word  some  explanation  of 
it,  before  they  came  to  the  passages  of  scripture  in  which 
the  word  occurs.  Samuel  said,  his  father  did  not  tell 
him  about  the  explanations  under  the  words,  but  he 
thought  it  would  be  a  good  plan  to  read  this.  So  he 
read  as  follows  : — 

"  Jacob  having  twelve  sons,  who  were  the  heads  of  so 
many  families,  which  all  together  formed  a  great  nation, 
every  one  of  these  families  was  called  a  tribe.  But  Jacob, 
on  his  death-bed,  adopted  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  the 
sons  of  Joseph,  and  would  have  them  also  to  constitute 
two  tribes  of  Israel.  Instead  of  twelve  tribes,  there  were 
now  thirteen,  that  of  Joseph  being  divided  into  two. 
However,  in  the  distribution  of  lands  to  the  people,  made 
by  Joshua,  by  the  command  of  God,  they  counted  but 
twelve  tribes,  and  made  but  twelve  lots  ;  for  the  tribe  of 
Levi,  which  was  appointed  to  the  service  of  the  taberna- 
cle of  the  Lord,  had  no  share  in  the  distribution  of  the 
land,  but  only  some  cities  to  dwell  in." 

This  explains  the  difficulty,  then,  said  Samuel,  without 
our  finding  a  list  of  the  tribes.     We  have  only  to  take  out 


52  CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Tribe  of  Levi  not  reckoned. 

Joseph's  name,  from  the  list,  and  put  in  Ephraim  and 
Manasseh,  and  we  shall  have  the  names  of  the  tribes. 

But  that  will  make  thirteen,  replied  Roger. 

Yes,  said  Samuel ;  and  there  were  thirteen  in  fact,  only 
the  tribe  of  Levi  is  not  usually  reckoned,  as  they  were 
only  priests  scattered  among  all  the  other  tribes. 


Aw-nin  &c  Smith       Sezief«lcl«rIjiiKCo. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  53 

The  double  map. 


CONVERSATION  IV. 

SECOND  PERIOD  OF  SACRED  HISTORY. 

On  the  next  appointed  evening,  the  boys  again  assem- 
bled, and  the  teacher  commenced  the  exercise  by  present- 
ing before  them  a  map  like  the  one  on  the  adjoining  page. 
The  boys  observed  that  the  map  was  divided  into  two 
parts,  by  a  line  drawn  in  the  middle,  and  that  the  two 
parts  were  very  much  alike.  They  both  had  a  part  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  and  the  whole  of  the  Dead  Sea,  drawn 
upon  them  ;  and  the  teacher  explained  to  them  that  both 
parts  were  maps  of  a  small  portion  of  the  land  East  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  and  he  showed  them  upon  the  map 
which  they  had  examined  at  the  second  conversation, 
this  portion  marked  off  by  the  dotted  line. 

John.  But  why  have  you  made  two  maps  of  the  same 
country  exactly  alike  ? 

Teacher.  Look  at  the  two  parts  of  this  map  carefully, 
and  see  if  they  are  exactly  alike. 

Roger.  No,  they  are  not :  there  are  more  countries 
marked  upon  this,  (pointing  to  the  one  on  the  left,)  and 
they  are  of  different  shape. 

SamveL  Besides,  the  names  of  the  places  are  different 
on  the  one  from  those  on  the  other. 

Teacher.  Yes.  It  is  only  this,  (pointing  to  the  one  on 
the  left,)  that  we  have  any  thing  to  do  with  now.  I  shall 
explain  to  you  the  other,  when  we  come  to  use  it.  Can 
you  tell  me,  Roger,  where  we  left  the  history  at  the  last 
lesson  ? 

5* 


54  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Jordan.  Mountains  and  streams. 

Roger.  They  were,  I  believe,  just  about  crossing  the 
Jordan,  to  go  and  take  possession  of  the  land  of  Canaan. 

Teacher.  Yes.  Ttis  is  a  map  of  the  land  of  Canaan  ; 
and  before  we  take  up  the  history,  I  must  describe  the 
map  to  you. 

Here  upon  the  West  side  is  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 
Here  you  see,  (pointing  to  b9)  is  the  commencement  of 
the  river  Jordan.  It  flows  on  a  little  way,  and  then  passes 
through  the  sea  of  Galilee.  Then  it  flows  on  South,  and 
empties  into  the  Dead  Sea.  Between  the  Jordan  and  the 
Mediterranean  Sea  was  the  principal  part  of  the  land  in- 
habited by  the  Jews.  Through  the  middle  of  this,  there 
was  a  range  of  mountains  running  from  North  to  South  ; 
and  from  this  many  small  streams  arose,  some  flowing 
West  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  others  East  to  the  Jordan, 
and  the  Dead  Sea.     You  see  many  of  these  upon  the  map. 

Roger.  Why  did  some  of  them  run  one  way  and  some 
the  other  t 

Teacher.  Cannot    you    tell  1 Water    always    flows 

downwards  ;  and  if  there  were  streams  really  running  as 
they  are  drawn  upon  the  map,  the  land  must  have  been 
higher  in  the  middle,  and  it  must  have  sloped  both  ways. 
This  was  the  fact. 

Samuel.  Yes,  I  see  the  mountains  here  :  this  range, 
(pointing  to  the  mountains  m  m  m})  extends  from  North 
to  South,  through  the  whole  distance. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  they  were  not  very  high  mountains  all 
the  way,  but  only  elevated  land.  In  some  places  thej 
rose  into  lofty  summits,  and  these  received  particular 
names.  I  will  not  stop  to  point  them  out,  however,  now, 
because  we  must  go  on  with  the  history. 

We  left  the  Israelites  about  crossing  the  Jordan,  to 
take  possession  of  the  promised  land.  They  had,  how- 
ever, settled  some  of  their  number  upon  the  East  side  of 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THK    BIBLE.  55 


Settlement  of  the  Tribes. 


Jordan.      John,    how    many    divisions   of  countries   are 
painted  upon  the  east  side  of  Jordan  ? 

John.  Three  :  green,  and  yellow,  and  blue. 

Teacher.  Can  you  tell,  by  looking  upon  the  map,  what 
tribes  were  settled  upon  this  side  ? 

John.  The  green  spot  is  marked  Reuben  :  does  that 
mean  that  the  tribe  of  Reuben  lived  in  that  country  ? 

Teacher.  Yes :  the  whole  map  is  divided  into  portions, 
according  as  the  country  was  divided  among  the  tribes, 
and  the  name  of  the  tribe  is  marked  upon  each. 

John.  The  others  upon  the  East  side  are  Gad  and  Ma- 
nasseh. 

Roger.  Half  of  Manasseh,  it  says. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  only  half  of  Manasseh  was  assigned  to 
this  side  of  Jordan.     Can  any  of  you  find  the  other  half? 

Samuel.  Here  it  is,  (pointing  to  the  blue  spot  on  the 
West  side  of  Jordan.) 

Teacher.  Yes.  Now  these  two  tribes  and  a  half  had 
their  inheritance  upon  the  East  side  of  Jordan,  and  the 
other  tribes  passed  over  the  river,  and  established  the 
camp  at  Gilgal. 

John.   Where  is  Gilgal  ? 

Teacher.  (Pointing  to  the  map.)  Here  it  is,  just  across 
the  Jordan,  not  far  from  where  they  passed  over.  From 
Gilgal,  the  army  of  the  Israelites  went  to  attack  the  cities 
of  Canaan.  By  God's  assistance,  they  were  successful  in 
their  enterprizes,  and  they  took  a  great  many  towns,  and 
conquered  a  great  many  tribes. 

Roger.  What  right  had  they  to  take  away  the  land  and 
the  towns  from  the  people  who  lived  there  ? 

Teacher.  They  would  have  had  no  right,  if  God  had 
not  expressly  required  them  to  do  so.  The  country  was 
God's,  and  the  Canaanites  who  dwelt  in  it  were  creatures 
of  his  power ;  and  of  course  he  had  a  right  to  do  what  he 


06  CONVERSATIONS    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

The  Canaanites.  Judah  and  Benjamin. 

chose  with  them,  or  to  direct  any  others  to  do  what  he 
wished.  Now  this  was  the  land  which  he  had  designed 
for  the  country  of  his  people,  the  descendants  of  Abra- 
ham ;  and  now  that  they  were  ready  to  enter  it,  he  had  a 
perfect  right  to  remove  all  who  were  there. 

Samuel.  Did  the  children  of  Israel  destroy  all  the  Ca- 
naanites ? 

Teacher.  No.  Some  they  made  slaves,  and  others 
God  did  not  permit  them  to  conquer.  These  remained 
in  various  parts  of  the  country,  and  afterwards  caused  the 
Israelites  some  trouble  by  making  war  upon  them.  You 
will  find,  by  looking  into  the  first  chapter  of  Judges,  who 
these  Canaanites  were  that  were  left,  and  what  part  of 
the  land  they  inhabited. 

The  land,  however,  was  generally  conquered,  and  then 
divided  among  the  tribes  ;  so  that  there  were  nine  tribes 
and  a  half  upon  the  West  side  of  the  river,  and  two 
tribes  and  a  half  upon  the  East  side.  I  shall  not  stop  to 
have  you  learn  where  all  the  tribes  were  settled,  but  only 
ask  you  to  notice  two,  Judah  and  Benjamin.  You  seetthis 
large  green  spot,  West  of  the  Dead  Sea.  This  was  given 
to  Judah,  and  Benjamin  had  a  small  territory  here,  just 
North  of  it. 

Samuel.  Why  must  we  notice  these  particularly  ? 

Teacher.  Because  Judah  was  the  tribe  from  which 
Christ  was  to  be  born,  and  Benjamin  and  Judah  remained 
together  for  a  long  time,  as  we  shall  see  presently. 

After  the  Israelites  were  well  established  in  the  land, 
Joshua,  their  leader,  who  succeeded  Moses,  died  and  left 
them  without  any  general  head.  They  were,  however, 
quietly  settled  in  their  various  districts,  and  were  gov- 
erned by  magistrates  scattered  over  the  country.  But 
they  soon  forgot  Jehovah,  and  began  to  worship  idols,  and 
other  gods.     In   consequence,   they   were  a  great  many 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  57 


Judges.  Samuel.  Saul. 


times  delivered  into  the  hands  of  their  enemies,  who 
made  war  upon  and  conquered  them.  When  they  re- 
pented, and  forsook  their  sins,  God  raised  up  some  cham- 
pion to  deliver  them.  This  was  the  case  a  great  many 
times,  and  the  stories  of  these  deliverances  are  all  very 
interesting.  You  remember  the  account  of  Samson,  the 
strong  man ;  he  was  one  of  these  champions.  These 
stories  are  found  in  the  book  of  the  Judges. 

Samuel  Why  is  it  called  the  book  of  Judges  1 

Teacher.  Because  these  champions  were  called  Judges, 
and  this  book  gives  an  account  of  the  Israelites,  while 
they  were  under  the  government  of  the  Judges. 

Roger.  How  long  was  this  ? 

Teacher.  This  state  of  things  continued  until  the 
people  desired  a  king,  and  they  made  known  their  re- 
quest to  God,  by  means  of  Samuel,  a  very  distinguished 
prophet,  who  was  living  among  them  at  that  time.  God 
was  displeased  with  their  request,  but  he  granted  it,  and 
gave  them  a  king. 

Roger.  I  should  have  thought  that  if  he  was  displeased, 
he  would  have  punished  them  by  refusing  to  grant  their 
request. 

Teacher.  No  :  to  refuse  to  give  them  a  king,  would 
have  been  no  punishment.  When  men  have  vain  and 
ambitious  desires,  the  worst  punishment,  which  can  be 
inflicted,  is  to  gratify  them.  The  Israelites  found  this  to 
be  the  case. 

Saul  was  the  first  king.  But  I  cannot  stop  to  go  over 
all  his  history.  You  must  read  it  carefully  in  the  Bible. 
I  can  only  say  he  commenced  by  pretending  to  obey  God, 
but  he  really  aimed  at  nothing  but  his  own  interest  and 
power.  He  soon  began  to  disobey  God,  in  what  he 
considered  little  sins :  his  transgressions  became  soon 
more  open  and  more  aggravated  :    he  soon  suffered  the 


58  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Why  Christ's  coming  was  delayed. 


bitter  consequences  of  disobeying  his  Creator  ;  but  his 
difficulties  and  troubles  did  not  lead  him  to  repent,  and  to 
ask  God's  forgiveness  ;  and  at  last  he  lost  every  thing  for 
which  he  had  been  striving,  and  died  a  miserable  death. 

John.  How  did  he  die  ? 

Samuel  Was  he  not  killed  in  battle  ? 

Teacher.  I  believe  we  must  not  stop  now  to  speak  of 
the  particular  manner  of  his  death  ;  for  you  can  read  this 
and  all  the  other  particulars  of  his  history  in  the  Bible. 
Our  object  now  is,  you  know,  only  to  run  over  rapidly 
the  train  of  Scripture  events,  so  as  to  give  you  a  connected 
view  of  the  whole. 

Samuel.  I  should  like  to  ask  one  question  before  you 
go  on.  I  think  you  mentioned  that  the  reason  why  God 
chose  Abraham  and  his  descendants,  to  keep  them  a 
separate  nation  under  his  care,  was,  that  he  designed  to 
bring  the  Saviour  into  the  world  among  them.  Why  did 
not  Christ  come  now,  as  soon  as  they  were  well  settled 
in  their  country  ? 

Teacher.  The  reasons  are  not  given,  I  believe,  in  the 
Bible,  though  there  were  undoubtedly  good  reasons  ;  as 
the  time  when  Christ  was  born,  is  often  alluded  to  as  a 
time  set  or  appointed  long  beforehand.  There  are,  how- 
ever, some  reasons  which  I  have  thought  of.  One  is, 
that  the  coming  of  a  great  Saviour  was  foretold  early  to 
the  Jewish  nation  ;  and  by  waiting  some  time,  until  this 
prophecy  should  become  thoroughly  made  known  to  this 
and  to  other  nations, — until  they  should  have  waited  a 
long  time  in  expectation  of  its  fulfilment,  the  appearance 
of  the  Saviour  at  last  would  excite  more  general  atten- 
tion, and  produce  greater  impression.  The  other  reason 
was,  that  the  world  was  probably  in  a  much  better  state 
for  receiving  the  Christian  religion  afterwards,  than  it  was 
then. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  59 

David's  life  and  actions.  Solomon's  Temple. 

But  we  must  go  on.  God  chose  David  to  be  the  next 
king  after  Saul.  You  all  remember  something  about  him., 
He  was  at  first  a  shepherd's  boy  ;  and  the  story  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  he  rose  from  his  father's  cottage  to  the  throne 
is  very  interesting.  He  made  Jerusalem  his  residence. 
Here  you  see  the  city,  on  the  borders  between  Judah  and 
Benjamin.     This  afterwards  became  a  great  city. 

Roger.  Did  David  build  it  first  ? 

Teacher.  No.  A  city  was  begun  there  before  the  Is- 
raelites came  to  Canaan.  They  did  not  get  possession  of 
the  whole  of  it,  however.  There  were  some  Jebusites  in 
it,  who  went  into  a  strong  part  of  it,  perhaps  a  part  sur- 
rounded by  a  wall,  and  the  Israelites  could  not  drive 
them  out.  David,  however,  attacked  and  conquered 
them,  and  took  the  whole  city  into  his  power. 

Not  long  after  this,  David  thought  of  building  a  great 
temple  for  the  worship  of  God.  He  collected  a  great 
many  things  necessary  for  building  it ;  but  God  said  to 
him  that  he  should  prefer  to  have  Solomon,  his  son,  build 
it.  David  reigned  a  great  many  years  very  prosperously, 
and  saw  the  kingdom  advancing  in  wealth,  and  power, 
and  happiness. 

John.  Was  he  a  good  man  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  he  was  a  very  pious  man,  and  loved  and 
served  God.  He  was,  however,  guilty  of  several  great 
sins  ;  but  he  sincerely  repented  of  them,  and  God  forgave 
him.  At  last  he  died,  and  his  son  Solomon  reigned  after 
him. 

The  reign  of  Solomon  is  remarkable  for  an  important 
event — the  building  of  the  temple  of  God,  at  Jerusalem. 
This  building  was  large  and  splendid,  and  is  very  often 
spoken  of  in  the  Bible.  Solomon  made  great  efforts  to 
bring  together  large  quantities  of  cedar-wood  and  stone, 
also  gold  and  silver  and  brass  and  iron.     He  sent  into  all 


60  CONVERSATIONS    ON   THE    BIBLE. 

Use  of  the  Temple.  The  revolt. 

the  surrounding  countries  for  workmen  who  were  skilful, 
and  did  every  thing  in  his  power  to  make  God's  house  as 
magnificent  as  possible. 

John.  How  large  was  it  ? 

Teacher.  All  the  buildings  and  walls  covered  a  very 
large  piece  of  ground  ;  but  the  principal  building  was 
about  ninety  feet  long  and  thirty  wide.  Perhaps  I  shall 
give  you  a  more  particular  description  of  the  temple  here- 
after :  at  present  I  can  stop  only  to  say  that  Solomon 
spent  many  years  in  building  it,  and  he  employed  many 
thousands  of  men.  He  also  made  a  large  number  of  ves- 
sels of  gold  and  silver,  to  be  used  in  the  temple  ;  and  when 
all  was  finished,  the  house  and  all  which  it  contained 
were  dedicated  to  God  by  very  solemn  ceremonies. 

Samuel.  What  was  the  temple  for  ? 

Teacher.  It  was  to  be  the  place  where  many  of  the  rites 
and  ceremonies  which  God  required  of  the  Jews,  were  to 
be  performed,  such  as  sacrifices,  &c.  The  people  came 
here,  in  great  numbers  too,  to  worship  God.  You  will 
often  see  it  mentioned  in  reading  the  Bible. 

Samuel.  It  is  often  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament. 

Teacher.  Yes :  though  this  was  after  it  had  been  de- 
stroyed and  rebuilt,  as  I  shall  soon  describe  to  you.  But 
I  must  hasten  on  to  give  you  an  account  of  a  great  revo- 
lution which  took  place  in  the  government  of  the  Israel- 
ites, after  Solomon's  death. 

The  three  kings  who  had  reigned  thus  far,  had  govern- 
ed all  the  twelve  tribes  ;  but  now  they  were  separated. 
You  can  read  the  account  of  this  revolution  in  the  first  of 
Kings,  or  in  the  first  of  Chronicles  :  it  is  a  very  interest- 
ing story. 

Roger.  Are  there  two  accounts  of  it  ? 

Teacher,  Yes  :  the  books  of  Kings  and  of  Chronicles 
describe  the  same  events,  as  I  shall  show  you  more  fully 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  61 

Judah  and  Israel,  two  kingdoms. 

hereafter.  As  I  said  before,  however,  the  tribes  were 
now  separated.  The  two  tribes,  Judah  and  Benjamin, 
which  I  showed  you  on  the  map,  remained  under  Reho- 
boam,  the  son  of  Solomon,  the  rightful  king  ;  and  the 
other  twelve  tribes  rebelled  against  him,  and  established 
a  separate  government  under  Jeroboam,  a  man  who  had 
been  one  of  Solomon's  officers.  This  event  is  called  the 
revolt  of  the  ten  tribes,  and  from  this  time  there  were  two 
separate  kingdoms  ;  one  was  called  Judah,  and  the  other 
Israel. 

Roger.  Which  was  called  Judah  ? 

Teacher.  That  composed  of  Judah  and  Benjamin.  I 
suppose  it  was  called  Judah  because  Judah  was  much 
larger  than  Benjamin.  The  tribe  of  Judah  was  always 
the  largest  tribe,  and  always  seemed  to  take  the  foremost 
place.  I  do  not  know  but  that  I  told  you  before,  that 
this  was  the  tribe  from  which  the  Saviour  was  to  come. 

Samuel.  I  remember  that  you  did. 

Teacher.  The  other  kingdom  was  called  the  kingdom 
of  Israel,  I  suppose  because  a  great  portion  of  the  tribes 
of  Israel  belonged  to  it.  These  two  kingdoms  continued 
a  long  time  ;  each  had  its  own  kings,  and  officers,  and 
armies. 

John.  Why  did  not  the  king  of  Judah  go  to  war  against 
the  king  of  Israel,  and  make  the  ten  tribes  come  back  to 
and  stronger  the  kingdom  ? 

Roger.  Because  the  ten  tribes  were  more  numerous 
than  the  two. 

Teacher.  No,  that  was  not  the  reason  ;  God  might 
easily  have  delivered  the  armies  of  the  ten  tribes  into  the 
hands  of  Judah  and  Benjamin  ;  but  he  had  resolved  upon 
this  separation,  as  a  punishment  for  the  sins  of  the  Israel- 
ites, and  he  meant  it  should  continue.  There  were,  how- 
6 


62  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  sins  and  the  captivity  of  Israel. 

ever,   some  wars  between  Judah  and  Israel ;  but  they 
were  never  united  again. 

Very  soon  after  this  separation,  the  ten  tribes  began  to 
be  very  idolatrous  and  wicked.  They  abandoned  God, 
and  worshipped  two  images  of  calves  which  Jeroboam 
set  up.  In  consequence  of  their  sins,  they  were  for  many 
years  oppressed  by  a  line  of  wicked  and  tyrannical  kings, 
who  grew  worse  and  worse,  and  who  excited  God's  dis- 
pleasure very  strongly  against  them,  and  at  last  the  ar- 
mies of  distant  nations  were  permitted  to  come  and  con- 
quer them,  and  carry  them  away  into  captivity.  First 
those  two  tribes  and  a  half  who  were  settled  on  the  East 
side  of  the  river  were  taken.  You  see  by  the  map  that 
they  were  most  exposed  by  their  very  situation.  Not 
long  after,  another  army  came,  conquered  the  other  seven 
and  a  half  tribes,  and  carried  them  away  into  captivity, 
from  whence  they  never  returned. 

Samuel  What  became  of  them  ? 

Teacher.  It  is  not  certainly  known.  There  have  been 
several  different  opinions  about  it :  but  they  are  not  men- 
tioned any  more  in  the  Bible,  and  of  course  we  cannot 
positively  ascertain;  and  it  is  of  less  consequence  to 
know,  as  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  one  from  which  the 
Saviour  was  to  come,  still  remained. 

Samuel.  Did  Judah  and  Benjamin  continue  to  serve 
God? 

Teacher.  Not  at  all  times  :  sometimes  the  kings  were 
wicked,  and  established  idolatrous  worship,  and  thus  led 
the  people  into  sin.  Then  perhaps  a  good  king  would 
reign,  and  endeavor  to  restore  the  worship  of  God.  They 
however  grew  less  and  less  devoted  to  the  service  of  God, 
and  offended  him  much  by  their  sins.  God  wished  them 
to  repent  and  return  to  him ;  and  he  accordingly  sent 
several  prophets,  at  different  times,  to  warn  them  of  their 


CONVERSATIONS    ON   THE    BIBLE.  63 

The  Prophets.  Isaiah. 

guilt,  and  the  danger  that  God  would  bring  some  dread- 
ful punishments  upon  them,  unless  they  should  lead  differ- 
ent lives. 

Roger.  Is  any  thing  said  about  these  prophets  in  the 
book  of  Kings  ? 

Teacher.  Not  much  ;  but  their  messages  to  the  people 
are  in  the  Bible, — in  the  last  part  of  the  Old  Testament. 

Samuel.  I  did  not  know  that  those  prophets  lived  in 
the  time  of  the  kings. 

Teacher.  Many  of  them  did.  It  tells,  in  the  beginning 
of  many  of  these  books,  when  the  authors  lived.  Will 
you  find  the  beginning  of  one  of  them?  (handing  Samuel 
a  Bible.) 

Samuel.  Here  is  Isaiah. 

Teacher.  Can  you  tell  now  when  Isaiah  lived,  by  the 
first  verse  ? 

Samuel  Yes  :  it  says,  "  the  vision  which  he  saw  con- 
cerning Judah  and  Jerusalem,  in  the  days  of  Uzziah, 
Jotham,  and  Hezekiah,  kings  of  Judah." 

Teacher.  Yes  :  now  look  in  the  book  of  Kings,  and 
see  where  the  account  of  these  kings  is  given. 

The  teacher  then  gave  the  boys  Bibles,  and  they  all 
looked  in  Kings  and  Chronicles,  and  found  the  chapters 
in  which  the  reigns  of  these  kings  are  described.  The 
teacher  then  requested  them  to  look  in  those  chapters, 
and  see  if  Isaiah  the  prophet  is  mentioned  ;  because,  said 
he,  if  he  lived  at  that  time,  it  would  be  very  probable  that 
some  mention  would  be  made  of  him.  The  boys  accord- 
ingly looked,  and  Roger  found  in  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  chapter  of  Kings  an  account  of  Hezekiah's 
being  sick,  and  of  his  sending  messengers  to  Isaiah  the 
prophet.  They  also  found  Isaiah  mentioned  in  Chron- 
icles. 


64  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Captivity  of  Judah.  Babylon. 

Teacher.  Now  if  we  should  in  the  same  manner  ex- 
amine the  other  prophetical  books  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
Old  Testament,  we  should  find  in  many  of  them  that  the 
authors  lived  in  the  times  of  the  kings,  and  that  they 
contain  many  very  solemn  warnings  to  the  Jewish  people, 
of  the  danger  of  exciting  God's  displeasure,  by  idolatry 
and  other  sins. 

Samuel.  Did  these  messages  from  God  have  an  effect 
upon  the  people? 

Teacher.  Sometimes  they  produced  a  little  effect,  but 
it  did  not  usually  last  long.  The  people  on  the  whole 
grew  worse  ;  and  God  at  last  permitted  a  great  and  pow- 
erful king  to  come  with  a  large  army,  conquer  the  coun- 
try, and  to  carry  away  the  people  captive,  just  as  the  ten 
tribes  had  been  carried  away  before. 

Roger.  Who  was  this  king? 

Teacher.  It  was  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  king  of  Babylon. 
Do  you  know  where  Babylon  was  ? 

Samuel.  Yes  :  I  believe  it  was  East  of  the  country  of 
Canaan.     I  saw  it  upon  the  other  map. 

The  teacher  then  brought  the  map  like  the  one  placed 
before  the  third  Conversation  in  this  book,  and  there  they 
found  the  city  of  Babylon  marked.  It  was  near  the  river 
Euphrates.  The  teacher  explained  to  them  that  since 
Abraham  had  left  the  region  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphra- 
tes, and  while  his  descendants  had  been  growing  into  a 
great  nation  between  the  Jordan  and  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  there  had  been  springing  up,  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Tigris  and  the  Euphrates,  a  great  and  powerful  empire, 
whose  capital  city  was  Babylon,  which  was  a  very  spa- 
cious and  magnificent  city. 

Teacher.  Nebuchadnezzar  was  king  of  Babylon  at  this 
time ;  and  he,  as  I  said  before,  came  to  Judea,  as  the  land 


CONVERSATIONS    ON   THE    BIBLE.  65 

A  siege.  Surrender.  Second  siege. 

inhabited  by  Judah  and  Benjamin  was  called,  and  con- 
quered the  country.  He  marched  to  Jerusalem  and  be- 
sieged it. 

John.  What  do  you  mean  by  besieging  it  ? 

Teacher.  He  brought  his  armies  all  around  it,  and  tried 
to  get  into  it,  to  take  possession  of  the  houses,  and  to 
make  the  people  prisoners. 

John.  Why  could  he  not  march  directly  into  the  city  ! 

Teacher.  Oh,  because  it  was  surrounded  by  very  high 
and  thick  walls,  and  the  gates  were  guarded  by  the  sol- 
diers of  the  Jews,  who  were  in  the  city. 

Roger.  How  did  he  get  in  at  last  ? 

Teacher.  He  made  engines  to  break  down  the  walls, 
and  he  built  forts  outside,  from  which  they  shot  arrows 
and  spears  into  the  city,  to  kill  the  men  who  were  upon 
the  walls.  But  the  principal  thing  was  to  surround  the 
city  with  his  armies,  and  so  to  prevent  any  body  from 
going  in  to  carry  food  for  the  people.  By  this  means  in  a 
short  time,  the  people  eat  all  the  provisions  which  were 
in  the  city  when  Nebuchadnezzar  came,  and  then  they 
had  nothing  to  keep  them  from  starving  ;  so  that  they 
were  willing  to  open  the  gates  and  let  him  in,  because 
they  had  rather  be  taken  prisoners  than  to  be  starved. 

John.  What  did  Nebuchadnezzar  do,  when  he  was  in 
the  city  ? 

Teacher.  He  took  all  the  principal  men  and  the  king, 
*nd  all  the  treasures  of  the  temple,  especially  the  most 
valuable  of  the  vessels  of  gold  and  silver,  and  carried 
them  away  with  him  to  Babylon. 

Samuel.  Then  he  did  not  carry  all  the  people  captive. 

Teacher.  No  :   but  he  afterwards  came  again,   and  be- 
sieged the  city  a  second  time.     He  took  it  this  time  too, 
and  destroyed  the  wall  and  the  houses,  and   burnt   the 
6* 


66  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Servitude  of  the  Jews  for  seventy  years. 

splendid  temple  that  Solomon  had  built.  He  also  carried 
away  great  numbers  of  the  people  to  Babylon. 

Samuel.  Did  he  carry  them  all  at  this  time  1 

Teacher.  No,  not  quite  all  ;  there  were  a  few  left,  and 
Nebuchadnezzar  placed  one  of  his  officers  over  them,  and 
left  them  in  the  land. 

John.  What  did  Nebuchadnezzar  do  with  all  the  Jews, 
when  he  had  brought  them  to  Babylon '? 

Teacher.  Many  of  them  were  made  servants,  and  others 
settled  quietly  in  Babylon,  under  the  dominion  of  the 
king,  and  probably  paying  him  money  every  year.  They 
were  not  happy  while  they  were  here,  and  were  always 
longing  to  return  to  Jerusalem. 

Roger.  I  supposed  that  God  had  promised  to  take  care 
of  this  nation,  and  to  preserve  them  until  the  Saviour  was 
born. 

Teacher.  He  had  done  so,  and  he  had  not  now  forgot- 
ten his  promise.  The  reason  why  they  were  carried  cap- 
tive, was  to  punish  them  for  their  repeated  and  continued 
idolatries.  He  had  distinctly  told  them,  before  they  came 
into  Canaan,  that  if  they  should  abandon  him  and  sin 
against  him,  he  should  not  protect  them  from  their  ene- 
mies. And  now  he  was  designing,  after  allowing  the 
kings  of  Babylon  to  retain  them  seventy  years,  to  restore 
them  again  to  their  country. 

John.  And  did  they  return  after  seventy  years  f 

Teacher.  Yes. 

John.  How  did  they  get  away? 

Teacher.  There  was  another  country  beyond  Babylon, 
called  Persia  :  we  will  find  it  upon  the  map. 

Samuel.  Here  it  is,  (pointing  to  the  map,)  near  the 
Persian  Gulf;  but  on  the  east  side  of  the  Tigris. 

Teacher.  Yes.  Now  there  arose  in  this  country  a  very 
wise  and  powerful  monarch,  whose  name  was  Cyrus.   God 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  67 

Cyrus's  stratagem.  Return. 


caused  him  to  come  to  Babylon,  and  gave  him  power  to 
conquer  it.  It  is  said  that  Cyrus  gained  possession  of 
the  city  in  a  very  singular  way.  The  city  was  partly 
upon  one  side  of  the  river  Euphrates,  and  partly  upon  the 
other  ;  and  the  wall  which  surrounded  it  passed  across 
the  river  upon  a  sort  of  a  bridge.  Now  Cyrus,  instead  of 
trying  to  beat  down  the  wall  by  engines,  set  his  men  at 
work  to  dig  a  new  channel  for  the  river  just  above  the 
city.  The  water  ran  off  in  this  new  channel,  and  left  the 
old  one,  under  the  bridge  into  the  city,  dry.  Then  Cyrus 
marched  his  army  into  the  city  on  the  old  bed  of  the  river. 

Roger.  Is  it  certain  that  this  is  true  ? 

Teacher.  I  believe  it  is  not  perfectly  certain  ;  but  at 
any  rate,  it  is  certain  that  Cyrus  conquered  Babylon,  and 
not  long  after  made  a  decree  that  the  Jews  might  return 
to  their  own  country. 

Samuel.  Is  there  much  account  in  the  Bible  of  what 
the  Jews  did  while  they  were  at  Babylon  ? 

Teacher.  Not  a  great  deal.  The  book  of  Daniel  is  an 
account  of  transactions  there,  and  contains  many  interest- 
ing stories.  Some  of  the  prophecies,  too,  relate  to  this 
time. 

But  we  must  pass  on  to  the  return  of  the  Jews.  They 
came  in  companies  from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem,  under  the 
direction  of  several  leaders,  among  whom  were  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah,  who  each  wrote  accounts  of  the  transactions 
which  they  witnessed. 

Samuel.  Are  these  the  books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  They  describe  the  return  of  the  Jews, 
the  rebuilding  of  the  temple,  and  the  walls  of  the  city. 
The  Jews  met  with  much  opposition  from  the  neighbor- 
ing people  ;  but,  notwithstanding  this,  they  went  onward 
and  finished  the  work,  and  they  at  last  became  comforta- 


68  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLH. 

Grecian  Conquest  of  Palestine. 


bly  and  quietly  settled  in  their  former  homes.    Here  ends 
the  Old  Testament  history. 

Samuel  And  was  Christ  born  immediately  after  this ! 

Teacher.  Oh,  no.  There  was  a  long  interval  of  which 
no  account  is  given  in  the  Bible.  We  can  learn,  how- 
ever, what  happened  during  this  time,  by  other  histories. 
The  Jews  did  not  live  in  peace  during  this  time.  After 
the  Persian  empire  had  existed  some  time,  there  arose 
another  great  empire,  the  Grecian,  which  conquered  the 
Persian,  and  obtained  possession  of  almost  all  the  coun- 
tries in  that  part  of  the  world.  Can  you  tell  where 
Greece  was  ? 

Samuel.  Yes  :  it  was  North  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 
I  believe  it  is  on  the  first  map  which  you  showed  us. 

The  Teacher  then  showed  them  the  first  map  again, 
and  Samuel  found  Greece  upon  it :  it  was  a  green  spot, 
marked  r  1,  North  of  the  Mediterranean. 

Teacher.  The  Jewish  nation  continued  some  years  un- 
der the  power  of  the  Greeks,  and  a  great  many  of  the 
people  learned  and  spoke  the  Greek  language.  There 
are  a  great  many  allusions  to  this  fact  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  apostles  found  Greeks  wherever  they  went : 
and  even  the  New  Testament  itself  was  written  in  Greek. 

Samuel.  I  thought  the  Jews  were  under  the  Roman 
power  at  the  time  of  Christ. 

Teacher.  They  were  so.  Can  you  tell  where  Rome 
was  ? 

John.  Yes  :  it  was  in  Italy,  upon  the  Tiber. 

They  then  looked  upon  the  same  map  upon  which  they 
had  found  Greece.  Samuel  said  that  he  thought  that  the 
part  marked  r  2,  a  spot  west  of  Greece,  was  Italy ;  but 
he  did  not  exactly  know  upon  what  part  of  it  Rome  was. 

Teacher.  The  city  was  near  the  West  side.  It  be- 
came the  centre  of  the  wealthiest,  most   powerful,  and 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  69 


Roman  Conquest. 


most  extensive  empire  that  the  world  ever  saw.  It 
conquered  Greece,  and  almost  all  the  countries  which 
were  dependent  upon  Greece  ;  and  of  course  Judea  fell 
under  its  power.  The  language  of  the  Romans  was  what 
is  called  the  Latin  language,  and  this  was  now  spoken 
some  among  the  Jews.  You  remember  when  Christ  was 
crucified,  Pilate  caused  the  inscription  over  him  to  be 
written  in  three  languages, — the  Hebrew,  which  was  the 
old  Jewish  language — the  Greek — and  the  Latin.  The 
facts,  which  I  have  been  explaining  to  you,  show  you  the 
reason  of  this. 

Samuel.  And  are  not  the  Romans  themselves  often 
mentioned  in  the  New  Testament  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  The  principal  rulers  of  Judea  wera 
Romans ;  and  there  were  officers  and  soldiers  stationed 
in  the  large  towns,  to  keep  the  country  in  subjection. 

But  it  is  now  time  to  close  this  lesson,  as  the  hour  has 
passed,  and  we  have  finished  the  Second  Period  of  Sacred 
History,  which  extends  from  the  settlement  in  Canaan  to 
the  birth  of  Christ. 


70  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Two  Maps  of  Palestine. 


CONVERSATION   V. 

THIRD  PERIOD  OF  SACRED  HISTORY. 

When  the  class  had  assembled,  at  the  time  appointed 
for  the  next  exercise,  the  teacher  unrolled  the  same  map 
which  he  had  used  on  the  preceding  evening.  The  read- 
ers of  this  book  will  recollect  that  this  map  was  divided 
by  a  line  in  the  middle,  into  two  parts,  which  were  con- 
siderably but  not  exactly  alike,  and  that  only  the  first 
part  was  used  in  the  last  Conversation.  The  teacher 
commenced  the  exercise  by  explaining  the  last  half  of 
this  map.  The  reader  will  find  it  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  Conversation. 

Teacher.  You  see,  as  I  believe  I  explained  to  you  at 
the  last  exercise,  that  this  sheet  contains  two  maps,  both 
of  the  same  countries ;  for  you  see  that  both  have  the 
same  seas  and  rivers. 

Roger.  Yes,  but  they  are  painted  differently,  and  they 
have  different  towns  and  countries  marked  upon  them. 

Teacher.  Yes.  Now  can  any  of  you  tell  the  reason  of 
this  ? 

Samuel.  I  suppose  that  the  maps  were  made  for  differ- 
ent times. 

Teacher.  How  ?     What  do  you  mean  by  that  ? 

Samuel.  Why,  this  map  (pointing  to  the  one  upon  the 
left  hand)  is  divided  into  tribes  ;  and  it  shows  how  the 
country  was,  when  all  the  tribes  were  there  :  but  after  the 
ten  tribes  were  carried  away,  and  the  country  was  settled 
by  others,  it  was  probably  divided  differently,  just  as  it  is 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  71 

Description  of  the  Maps. 

upon  this  map,  (pointing  to  the  one  upon  the  right  hand.) 
Teacher.  Yes  :  the  first  map  represents  the  country 
East  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  as  it  was  in  the  time  of 
the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  when  it  was  called  Canaan. 
The  second  shows  the  same  country  as  it  was  afterwards, 
in  the  time  of  Christ.  You  will  observe  that  there  are 
several  great  divisions  upon  this  second.  The  first  you 
see  here,  (pointing  to  the  blue  spot)  upon  the  southern 
part,  West  of  the  Red  Sea. 

Samuel.  Is  not  this  the  same  that  was  inhabited  by  Ju- 
dah  and  Benjamin  ? 

Teacher.  It  is,  pretty  nearly.  It  was  upon  this  that 
the  Jews  principally  settled,  upon  their  return  from  Baby- 
lon. The  capital  city  is  Jerusalem,  which  you  see  here, 
(pointing  to  Jerusalem.)  This  is  the  most  important  part 
of  the  map.  Directly  North  of  it,  you  see  a  large  yellow 
spot :  it  is  called  Samaria.  John,  can  you  tell  me  who 
were  the  former  inhabitants  of  this  part  of  the  country  1 

John.  I  can  tell  by  looking  upon  the  other  map — (after 
looking) — the«tribes  of  Issachar,  Manasseh,  and  Ephraim. 
Teacher.  And  what  became  of  these  tribes  ? 
John.  They  were  carried  away  with  the  ten  tribes,  and 
never  returned. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  but  they  were  not  all  carried  away  : 
some  were  left,  and  other  persons  came  in  and  settled 
among  them.  There  was  a  large  city,  called  Samaria,  in 
this  country,  which  was  the  capital.  The  people  who 
lived  here  tried  to  prevent  the  Jews  from  building  the 
temple,  when  they  returned  from  Babylon ;  and  there  was 
always  after,  a  great  enmity  between  the  Jews  and  the  Sa- 
maritans. 

John.  Were  there  any  wars  between  them  ? 
Teacher.  None  mentioned  or  alluded  to  in  the  Bible. 
There  was,  however,  a  great  hatred  between  them.     Will 


72  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Provinces  in  Palestine. 

you  find,   John,  (giving  him  a  Bible)   the  4th  chapter  of 
John,  and  read  the  9th  verse  ? 

John.  (Reading.)  "  Then  saith  the  woman  of  Samaria 
unto  him,  How  is  it  that  thou,  being  a  Jew,  askest  drink 
of  me,  which  am  a  woman  of  Samaria  ?  (for  the  Jews  have 
no  dealings  with  the  Samaritans.)" 

Teacher.  This  verse  shows  you  what  was  the  feeling 
between  these  nations.  I  shall  explain  to  you  presently 
why  Christ  was  in  Samaria  at  this  time.  North  of  Sama- 
ria you  see  a  red  spot :  it  is  Galilee.  It  was  in  this  prov- 
ince that  the  Saviour  spent  a  great  part  of  his  life  upon 
the  earth.  You  see  East  of  it  a  sea.  Roger,  can  you 
read  the  name  of  it  ? 

Roger.  The  sea  of  Galilee. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  it  was  also  sometimes  called  the  lake  of 
Gennesaret.  These  three  provinces,  Judea,  Samaria, 
and  Galilee,  are  the  most  important,  and  in  fact  the  only 
important  parts  of  the  map.  There  are  one  or  two  coun- 
tries more  North  and  South,  and  there  is  all  the  country 
beyond  Jordan,  called  sometimes  Perea.      « 

I  must  not,  however,  spend  any  more  time  in  describ- 
ing the  map,  but  must  go  on  with  the  history  of  Christ. 
At  the  time  of  his  birth,  you  know,  the  Jews  were  under 
the  Romans,  and  Herod  was  the  king  whom  the  Roman 
emperor  had  put  over  them.     He  reigned  at  Jerusalem. 

John.  Was  Christ  born  at  Jerusalem  ? 

Teacher.  No.  His  parents  lived  in  Galilee,  in  a  place 
called  Nazareth.  You  see  it  here,  (pointing  to  Nazareth 
upon  the  map.) 

Samuel.  Were  they  not  Jews  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  You  remember  I  told  you  Christ  was 
to  come  from  the  tribe  of  Judah. 

Samuel  Why  then  were  they  living  so  far  from  Judea  ? 

Teacher.  I  do  not  know.     But  it  was  a  fact  that  many 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  73 

Christ's  parentage  and  birth.  Herod. 

Jews  became  scattered  after  the  captivity,  over  all  the  sur- 
rounding country,  so  that  there  were  some  in  almost  all 
the  cities  and  large  towns.  I  do  not  know  what  was  the 
particular  reason  why  Joseph  and  Mary  were  settled  in 
Nazareth. 

Christ,  however,  was  not  born  in  Nazareth ;  he  was 
born  in  Bethlehem,  which  you  see  here,  (pointing  to  the 
map,)  just  South  of  Jerusalem,  where  his  parents  had 
gone  to  pay  a  tax  to  the  Romans. 

Roger.  Did  his  parents  carry  him  then  home  to  Naza- 
reth ? 

Teacher.  No.  Herod  the  king,  who  was  here  at  Jeru- 
salem, heard  that  the  Jews  expected  a  king  to  be  born 
among  them  about  that  time,  and  he  heard  too,  in  a  very 
singular  way,  which  you  can  read  in  the  2d  chapter  of 
Matthew,  that  a  child  which  had  just  been  born  in  Beth- 
lehem was  probably  the  one. 

Samuel.  Did  the  Jews  expect  a  king  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  Christ  is  often  called  in  the  Bible  a 
king ;  but  it  does  not  mean  that  he  was  to  be  the  head  of 
a  nation  and  an  army,  but  only  that  he  was  to  reign  in 
the  hearts  of  all  holy  men.  The  Jews,  however,  expected 
that,  the  Saviour  promised  in  the  Old  Testament  was 
coming  to  deliver  them  from  the  Romans,  and  to  make 
them  a  separate  and  independent  nation,  as  they  were  in 
the  time  of  David  and  Solomon. 

Now  Herod  heard  of  this,  and  began  to  be  afraid  that 
he  was  going  to  lose  his  kingdom. 

John.  What  did  he  do? 

Teacher.  He  sent  to  Bethlehem,  and  had  all  the  young 
children  there  killed,  in  hopes  to  kill  Christ  among  the 
others. 

Roger.  And  how  did  Christ  escape  ? 

Teacher.  God  sent  his  angel  to  tell  Joseph  of  the  dan- 


74  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Christ's  childhood  and  youth. 

ger,  before  Herod's  messengers  arrived  ;  and  Joseph  took 
Mary  and  the  child,  and  fled  into  Egypt,  where  they  were 
safe. 

John.  Where  was  Egypt  ? 

Teacher.  Do  you  not  recollect  to  have  ever  heard  of  it 
before  ? 

John.  (Thinking.)  Yes,  Sir  ;  it  was  where  the  children 
of  Israel  were  in  bondage,  down  somewhere  here,  (point- 
ing to  the  South  West  corner  of  the  map.)  WThy  is  it  not 
put  down  ? 

Teacher.  Because  this  map  does  not  extend  far  enough 
to  take  it  in.  We  might  find  it  by  looking  at  one  of  the 
other  maps. 

Roger.  How  long  did  they  stay  in  Egypt  ? 

Teacher.  Until  they  heard  that  Herod  was  dead  ;  and 
then  they  ventured  to  return  home  to  Nazareth,  here  in 
Galilee,  (pointing  to  the  map,)  where  they  lived  until 
Christ  was  about  thirty  years  of  age. 

Samuel.  I  thought  our  Saviour  went  to  Jerusalem  when 
he  was  twelve  years  old. 

Teacher.  So  he  did,  but  he  returned  immediately  ;  so 
that  during  all  the  early  part  of  his  life  he  lived  in  Gali- 
lee. '  There  is  very  little  account  of  him  during  this  time 
in  the  Bible. 

Samuel.  Did  he  not  begin  to  preach  and  to  work  mira- 
cles before  he  was  thirty  years  old  ? 

Teacher.  No.  He  began  but  about  two  or  three  years 
before  his  death.  I  shall  not  describe  his  journeys  partic- 
ularly after  this.  He  used  to  spend  most  of  the  time  in 
travelling  about  Galilee,  only  once  every  year,  at  the  cel- 
ebration of  the  passover,  that  great  feast  which  I  have 
already  described  to  you,  he  went  to  Jerusalem,  where  he 
had  many  interesting  adventures.     In  these  journeys  he 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  75 

Missions  established  by  Christ. 

was  of  course  obliged  to  go  through  Samaria,  but  he  sel- 
dom remained  long  in  this  province. 

Roger.  Did  the  people  believe  him  ? 

Teacher.  Not  a  great  many,  though  sometimes  he  was 
followed  by  great  crowds,  to  hear  what  he  said  and  to  see 
his  miracles. 

He  chose  twelve  of  his  friends,  to  be  with  him  all  the 
time,  and  he  gave  to  them  a  great  many  instructions. 
Once  he  sent  them  forth,  two  by  two,  into  all  the  villages 
and  towns  around,  to  preach  and  to  endeavor  to  convince 
the  people  that  the  long  promised  Saviour  had  come. 

Samuel.  Did  he  not  once  send  away  seventy  for  this 
purpose  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  But  all  was  not  enough  to  persuade  the 
Jews  to  receive  him  as  their  Saviour.  They  had  set  their 
hearts  on  having  some  one  come  to  deliver  them  from  the 
Romans,  and  they  could  not  bear  to  think  that  the  Sa- 
viour, whom  they  had  been  so  long  expecting,  had  come 
only  to  show  them  how  to  be  reconciled  to  God,  and  to 
prepare  for  heaven. 

In  consequence  of  this,  a  great  many  of  them  became 
his  enemies ;  and  he  charged  them  so  plainly  and  so  for- 
cibly with  the  great  sins  of  which  they  had  been  guilty,, 
that  they  became  very  angry  with  him.  At  last,  one 
year  when  he  was  at  the  passover  at  Jerusalem,  they 
formed  a  plan  to  destroy  him.  Jesus  knew  all  their  de- 
signs, and  foreseeing  that  he  was  about  to  die,  he  spent  a 
great  deal  of  time  with  his  twelve  disciples,  giving  them 
his  last  instructions,  and  endeavoring  to  prepare  them  for 
the  great  sufferings  they  were  soon  to  undergo. 

John.  Why  did  not  he  escape  from  Jerusalem,  and  save 
his  life? 

Teacher.  Because  he  came  into  the  world  to  die  for 
sinners ;  and  now  the  appointed  time  had  arrived,  and  he 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Cedron.  Gethsemane.  Judas. 

did  not  shrink  from  the  suffering,  or  have  any  wish  to  es- 
cape. After  he  had  finished  his  instructions,  he  went  out 
of  the  city,  leading  his  disciples  with  him  across  the 
brook  Cedron. 

Roger.  Where  is  the  brook  Cedron  ? 

Teacher.  Do  you  see  (pointing  to  the  map)  this  little 
brook  running  by  the  East  side  of  Jerusalem,  and  then 
turning  and  flowing  off  into  the  Dead  Sea  I 

Roger,  Yes  ;  but  it  has  no  name. 

Teacher.  The  name  is  not  written  upon  the  map,  but  it 
was  called  Cedron.  On  the  other  side  of  this  brook  was 
a  retired  but  pleasant  place,  called  the  garden  of  Geth- 
semane ;  and  beyond  this  rose  a  hill,  called  the  Mount  of 
Olives.  Our  Saviour  spent  the  night  here  in  prayer ;  and 
he  suffered  great  mental  agony,  so  that  he  sweat  as  it 
were  drops  of  blood. 

John.  Was  it  because  he  was  afraid  to  die  ? 

Teacher.  No,  probably  not.  A  great  many  others  have 
met  with  death  in  the  most  cruel  form,  with  perfect  com- 
posure, and  Jesus  was  certainly  not  deficient  in  fortitude. 
No,  the  great  object  of  Christ's  coming  into  the  world 
was  to  bear  sufferings  which  we  had  deserved  for  our 
sins,  so  that  we  might  be  forgiven  ;  and  a  considerable 
part  of  the  suffering  which  he  endured  for  this  purpose 
was  his  agony  in  the  garden, — though  we  cannot  tell 
precisely  what  the  nature  of  it  was.  Very  early  in  the 
morning,  our  Saviour  and  his  disciples  saw  a  large  com- 
pany coming  out  of  Jerusalem,  over  Cedron,  to  take  him. 

John.  How  did  they  know  where  he  was  ? 

Teacher.  Do  you  not  recollect  that  he  was  betrayed  ? 

John.  Yes,  Sir,  by  Judas. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  Judas,  one  of  his  twelve  disciples,  had 
been  hired  by  the  Jews  to  show  Christ  to  them.  He  ac- 
cordingly brought  them  to  Gethsemane,  where  he  knew 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  77 

The  Sanhedrim.  Trial  in  the  morning. 

Christ  was ;  and  they  took  him  and  carried  him  into  the 
city. 

But  before  I  go  on  any  farther,  I  must  explain  to  you 
how  it  was  that  persons  were  tried,  when  they  were  ac- 
cused of  crimes  in  Jerusalem,  at  this  time.  When  the 
Romans  conquered  Judea,  they  did  not  take  the  govern- 
ment entirely  away  from  the  Jews.  There  was  a  great 
council  of  this  nation  which  the  Romans  permitted  to  re- 
main, to  make  some  kinds  of  laws  and  to  punish  crimi- 
nals, in  any  way  except  putting  them  to  death.  When- 
ever any  one  had  committed  a  crime  for  which  the  Jews 
thought  that  he  deserved  death,  they  were  not  permitted 
to  punish  him  in  that  way,  without  first  bringing  him  to 
the  Roman  governor,  and  obtaining  his  consent.  This 
great  council  of  the  Jews  was  called  the  Sanhedrim. 

Roger.  I  never  saw  that  name  in  the  Bible. 

Teacher.  I  believe  the  name  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
Bible  ;  but  the  meetings  of  the  council  are  often  men- 
tioned in  such  a  way  as  this  : — "  the  elders,  and  the  chief 
priests,  and  the  scribes  came  together." 

John,  How  do  they  know  that  the  name  of  the  council 
was  Sanhedrim  ? 

Teacher.  From  other  histories  written  in  these  times. — 
Well,  as  soon  as  it  was  day-light,  they  brought  Jesus  into 
this  council. 

John.  Why,  was  it  dark  when  they  came  out  after  him, 
at  Gethsemane  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  you  remember  I  said  that  he  spent  the 
whole  night  there  ;  and  his  enemies  came  out  very  early, 
before  day,  to  take  him.  They  had  to  bring  lanterns  and 
torches. 

Samuel.  Why  did  the  Sanhedrim  meet  so  early  ? 

Teacher.  It  is  said  that  this  was  the  usual  time  of  their 

meeting.     But  however  this  was,  they  met  soon  after  day- 
7* 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Roman  jurisdiction.  Crucifixion. 

light  at  this  time,  and  proceeded  to  examine  Christ.  Caia- 
phas,  the  high  priest,  was  at  the  head  of  the  council. 

Roger.  I  do  not  see  what  crime  they  could  accuse  him 
of. 

Teacher.  They  accused  him  of  blasphemy,  because  he 
said  he  was  the  Son  of  God;  and  they  pronounced  him 
worthy  of  death  :  but  then,  as  I  said  before,  they  could 
not  put  him  to  death  without  the  consent  of  the  Roman 
governor.  So  they  carried  him  away  to  the  governor, 
whose  name  was  Pilate. 

Pilate  saw  very  soon  that  he  did  not  deserve  to  die,  and 
so  he  told  the  Jews,  and  at  first  refused  to  have  him  put 
to  death.     But  the  Jews   urged  him  again  and  again  to 

O  D  O 

grant  their  request ;  and  a  great  multitude  of  people  col- 
lected, and  kept  crying  out  continually,  "  Let  him  be  cru- 
cified. "  At  last  the  governor  consented  ;  and  they  took 
the  Saviour,  and,  after  heaping  upon  him  many  insults 
and  injuries,  they  led  him  away  to  a  hill  called  Calvary, 
West  of  Jerusalem,  and  there  they  crucified  him. 

Jesus  bore  it  all  with  perfect  patience  and  submission. 
His  disciples  had  forsaken  him  and  fled  in  terror,  so  that 
he  was  alone  among  his  enemies  ;  and  he  made  no  resist- 
ance, and  no  effort  to  escape.  When  they  reproached 
and  insulted  him,  he  heard  them  silently,  and  made  no 
reply  ;  and  at  last,  when  he  was  dying  upon  the  cross,  he 
prayed  to  God  to  forgive  them.     About  noon  he  died. 

He  remained  upon  the  cross  during  the  afternoon,  and 
towards  night  some  of  his  friends  asked  Pilate  to  permit 
them  to  take  down  the  body  and  place  it  in  a  tomb.  He 
gave  them  permission  ;  and  the  body  was  placed  in  a 
tomb,  where  it  remained  all  the  next  day,  which  was  the 
Sabbath. 

Roger.  Then  he  was  crucified  on  Saturday. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Resurrection.  Conclusion. 

Teacher.  No,  on  Friday.  Saturday  was  the  Sabbath 
in  those  days.     It  was  changed  to  Sunday  afterwards. 

John.  For  what  reason  ? 

Teacher.  I  will  explain  the  reason  presently.  As  I 
said  before,  he  remained  in  the  grave  through  the  Sab- 
bath ;  but  very  early  on  Sunday  morning  they  came  to  the 
tomb,  and  found  that  the  body  was  gone.  There  was  an 
angel  there,  instead,  who  told  them  that  Jesus  had  risen 

Oft 

from  the  dead. 

Samuel.  I  supposed  that  he  was  in  the  grave  three  days. 

Teacher.  No,  strictly  speaking,  not  three  full  days.  He 
rose  from  the  dead  on  the  third  day  after  he  was  cruci- 
fied, and  on  this  account  he  is  sometimes  said  to  have 
been  three  days  in  the  grave. 

Roger.  Where  did  Christ  go  after  he  had  risen  ? 

Teacher.  He  appeared  several  times  to  his  disciples  at 
Jerusalem,  and  then  directed  the  eleven  to  go  to  Galilee, 
where  he  said  he  would  meet  them.  This  you  remember 
was  where  he  had  spent  his  early  days.  He  saw  them 
after  this  many  times;  gave  them  his  parting  instructions; 
directed  them  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  to  wait  there  until  they 
should  receive  power  from  heaven,  and  then  to  go  forth 
and  preach  the  gospel  to  all  nations.  At  last,  one  day 
while  they  were  with  him,  not  far  from  Jerusalem,  he 
bade  them  farewell,  and  ascended  from  the  earth ;  a  cloud 
received  him,  and  they  saw  him  no  more. 

When  the  teacher  had  finished  this  account,  he  told 
the  boys  that  it  brought  them  to  the  end  of  the  third  pe- 
riod of  Scripture  History,  and  that  although  the  hour  was 
not  quite  spent,  there  would  not  be  time  to  finish  the  next 
period  that  evening ;  and  therefore  he  would  not  begin. 


80  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Description  of  the  Map. 


CONVERSATION  VI. 

FOURTH  PERIOD  IN  SACRED  HISTORY. 

As  the  teacher  unrolled  a  map  similar  to  the  one  ad- 
joining this  page,  at  the  next  evening  in  which  the  boys 
were  to  meet,  he  told  them  that  this  map  was  a  represent- 
ation of  those  countries  in  which  the  events  in  the  re- 
maining portion  of  scripture  history  took  place.  Samuel, 
said  he,  can  you  tell  any  thing  about  this  map  ? 

Samuel.  This  large  sea  running  through  the  middle  of 
the  map,  is,  I  should  think,  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

John.  But  it  is  a  great  deal  larger  than  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea  was  upon  the  other  maps. 

Samuel.  That  is  because  on  the  other  maps  only  a  par: 
of  the  sea  is  drawn  ;  for  those  maps  only  represented  the 
countries  about  this  end  of  the  map,  (pointing  to  the  East- 
ern part  of  it,)  and  therefore  only  this  end  was  drawn. 

Teacher.  Then  this  map  represents  the  countries  drawn 
upon  the  last  maps,  and  a  great  deal  more  besides  ? 

Samuel.  Yes,  Sir.  This  yellow  spot,  (pointing  to  the 
yellow  spot  East  of  the  Mediterranean,)  is  Canaan;  and 
here  is  the  river  Jordan  and  the  Dead  Sea. 

John.  How  small  they  are. 

Roger.  Yes  ;  because  on  this  map  they  have  only  a 
little  corner,  but  on  the  other  they  were  spread  over  the 
whole  paper. 

Teacher.  Yes.  This  map  must  be  made  to  take  in  a 
much  larger  region,  because  after  the  death  of  Christ  the 
disciples  travelled  into  many  countries,  and  spread  the 


Anstya  vw.  6c  Syxn  tit    S  e-n:«te  I  darl.it  h.   C  < 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  81 

Map.  Roman  Empire. 

Christian  religion  far  around.  I  am  going  this  evening 
to  tell  you  how  this  was  done,  and  this  map  shows  the 
countries  where  the  disciples  travelled.  Can  you  tell, 
John,  whether  they  are  generally  to  the  Westward  or  the 
Eastward  of  where  Christ  lived  and  died  ! 

John.  To  the  Westward. 

Teacher.  And  the  events  recorded  in  the  Bible  which 
took  place  before  Christ,  were  they  to  the  Eastward  or 
Westward  of  Canaan  ? 

Roger.  To  the  Eastward.  At  least,  it  was  East  of  Ca- 
naan where  man  was  created,  and  where  Abraham  lived. 

Samuel.  But  the  children  of  Israel  remained  several 
hundred  years  in  Egypt,  and  that  is  South  of  Canaan. 

Teacher.  Yes.  But  those  Eastern  countries  had  grad- 
ually declined ;  and  others  farther  to  the  West  had  be- 
come populous  and  civilized,  and  had  risen  to  power. 
You  recollect  I  informed  you  at  the  last  lesson,  that  the 
Romans  had  possession  of  Judea,  in  the  time  of  Christ. 
All  these  countries  upon  this  map,  and  many  others  far- 
ther West  and  North,  were  under  the  Roman  power  at 
this  time.     Roger,  can  you  tell  me  where  Rome  is  ? 

Roger.  (Pointing  to  the  West  side  of  the  map.)  Here 
it  is  in  Italy. 

Teacher.  Yes:  it  was  at  this  time  a  very  great  and 
splendid  city,  and  all  these  countries  were  rich  and  popu- 
lous, filled  with  towns  and  villages,  all,  however,  under 
the  Roman  power.  But  we  must  begin  with  our  history 
again. 

Samuel.  We  left  off  at  the  ascension  of  our  Saviour. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  and  do  you  remember  his  farewell  di- 
rections to  his  followers  ? 

Samuel.  He  directed  them  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  and  wait 
there  some  time,  and  then  to  go  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
all  the  world. 


82  CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  gospel  preached  to  the  Jews. 

John.  How  could  they  preach  to  all  the  world  ?  there 
were  only  twelve  of  them,  and  I  should  think  it  would 
be  impossible  for  them  ever  to  go  over  the  whole  world. 

Roger.  There  were  only  eleven.  Judas  betrayed 
Christ. 

Teacher.  Christ  did  not  consider  himself  as  speaking 
only  to  the  eleven ;  but  to  all  his  followers,  to  the  end  of 
time.  They  were  but  to  begin  the  work.  In  obedience 
to  his  command,  the  eleven  went  to  Jerusalem  ;  and  the 
first  thing  which  they  did  was  to  choose  one  in  the  place 
of  Judas.  Then  they  remained  waiting  for  the  influences 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  Christ  had  promised.  This  at 
last  came,  and  they  immediately  began  to  preach  the 
gospel  to  all  the  multitudes  at  Jerusalem. 

Roger.  What  did  they  preach  ? 

Teacher.  Peter  seems  to  have  been  a  chief  speaker. 
He  endeavored  to  convince  the  Jews,  for  they  spoke  only 
to  Jews,  that  Jesus  Christ  who  had  just  been  cruci- 
fied at  Jerusalem,  was  the  Saviour  who  had  been  prom- 
ised in  the  Old  Testament,  and  he  called  upon  them  to 
repent  of  their  sins  and  believe  in  this  Saviour.  They 
spoke  too  in  a  great  many  languages,  as  the  persons 
there  were  of  many  different  nations ;  and  as  they  had 
had  no  means  of  learning  these  languages  themselves, 
the  people  who  heard,  knew  that  they  were  taught  from 
God. 

Samuel.  I  thought  you  said  that  the  people  whom  they 
preached  to,  were  all  Jews  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  they  were  Jews,  but  they  had  been  set- 
tled in  a  great  many  different  countries,  and  had  thus 
learned  these  different  languages,  and  forgotten  their  own. 

Samuel.  This  was  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  was  it  not  ? 

Teacher.  Yes :   the    account   is    given    in    the    second 


CONVERSATIONS    ON   THE    BIBLE.  83 

Persecution  of  the  Christians. 

chapter  of  the  Acts.  Several  thousand  persons  believed, 
and  joined  the  disciples  of  Christ. 

Roger.  Did  not  they  all  believe  ? 

Teacher.  No  :  some  ridiculed  the  apostles  and  opposed 
them. 

After  this,  the  apostles  preached  several  times  in  Jeru- 
salem, and  performed  many  miracles.  Great  numbers 
believed  and  were  baptized  ;  thus  being  admitted  to  the 
Christian  church.  They  sold  their  houses  and  lands,  and 
put  the  money  into  one  stock,  so  as  to  have  all  things  in 
common,  and  thus  they  lived  together  very  peacefully 
and  happily  for  some  time.  Some  of  them  were  once  or 
twice  forbid  by  the  Jewish  government  to  preach  any 
more,  and  even  punished,  but  they  did  not  on  that  ac- 
count cease.  They  rejoiced,  as  the  Bible  says,  to  suffer 
shame  for  Christ's  name. 

Samuel.  Did  they  preach  any,  out  of  Jerusalem  ? 

Teacher.  No,  not  yet :  though  soon  after  this  time  a 
very  violent  and  cruel  persecution  arose  against  them, 
and  they  then  fled  into  all  the  surrounding  towns  and 
villages,  still  preaching  Christ  as  the  Saviour.  This  per- 
secution began  by  the  murder  of  Stephen  :  you  will  find 
an  interesting  account  of  his  trial  and  death  in  one  of  the 
early  chapters  of  the  Acts. 

Roger.  Was  he  one  of  the  apostles  1 

Teacher.  No :  I  forgot  to  mention,  that  in  consequence 
of  the  Christians  living  in  common,  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  business  to  be  attended  to,  which  at  first  was 
done  by  the  apostles  ;  but  which  they  soon  found  took 
too  much  of  their  time.  There  were  therefore  seven 
officers  appointed  for  this  purpose,  which  were  called 
deacons,  and  Stephen  was  one  of  these. 

Roger.  Did  they  go  very  far  away  from  Jerusalem  ? 

Teacher.  No.     The  Bible  does  not  give  any  account 


84  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Gospel  preached  to  the  Gentiles. 

of  their  going  now  very  far  out  of  Judea.  They  passed 
along  through  the  towns  and  villages  of  Judea,  preaching 
the  gospel,  and  working  miracles  ;  but  they  confined 
themselves  entirely  to  the  Jews.  Christ  had  commanded 
them  to  publish  the  gospel  first  to  this  people.  But  he 
was  preparing  the  way  for  sending  the  news  of  salvation 
to  all  nations. 

Samuel.  How  was  it  necessary  to  prepare  the  way  ? 

Teacher.  Two  things  were  to  be  done.  In  the  first 
place,  to  choose  and  to  commission  some  proper  individ- 
ual for  this  service  ;  and  in  the  second  place,  to  prepare 
the  minds  of  the  present  Christians  for  this  extension  of 
the  offers  of  salvation. 

Samuel.  Why,  would  any  of  them  be  unwilling  that  the 
gospel  should  be  preached  to  all  ? 

Teacher.  Perhaps  not  really  unwilling  ;  but  the  Jews 
had  been  so  long  accustomed  to  suppose  that  the  descend- 
ants of  Abraham  were  the  only  nation  which  God  loved, 
or  which  he  would  condescend  to  save,  that  they  could  not 
be  willing  to  have  the  gospel  preached  to  any  but  Jews, 
without  very  clear  proof  that  God  desired  it.  But  as  I 
was  saying  before,  the  first  thing  was  to  choose  a  proper 
individual,  to  become  as  it  were  the  first  foreign  mis- 
sionary. 

Samuel.  Did  it  require  any  uncommon  qualities  to  fit  a 
man  for  this  service  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  ;  for  as  soon  as  he  should  leave  Judea 
and  the  Jews,  he  would  come  into  countries  where  there 
was  more  learning  and  refinement,  and  a  higher  state  of 
civilization.  He  would  pass  from  a  province  in  one  of 
the  extremities  towards  the  centre  of  the  great  Roman 
empire,  and  perhaps  would  be  called  to  speak  as  the  am- 
bassador of  Christ  in  the  very  capital  itself.  To  discharge 
these  duties  successfully,  would  require  peculiar  qualifica- 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  85 

Preaching  to  the  Gentiles.  Saul. 

tions.  He  ought  to  be  a  man  of  intelligence  and  educa- 
tion, as  well  as  of  active  enterprize. 

Roger.  I  should  think,  if  God  could  teach  the  apostles 
new  languages  at  once,  he  might  make  any  man,  although 
he  was  ignorant,  successful  even  at  Rome. 

Teacher.  So  he  might  have  done,  undoubtedly  ;  but 
God  wishes  that  his  servants  should  at  all  times  exercise 
ingenuity  and  diligence  in  doing  his  work ;  and  he  has 
accordingly  almost  always,  in  the  Bible,  given  us  exam- 
ples of  the  kind  of  characters  and  of  measures  best  adapt- 
ed for  doing  good,  so  that  we  may  imitate  them. 

Roger.  Who  was  chosen  to  go  and  preach  to  the  Ro- 
mans ? 

Teacher.  It  was  not  to  the  Romans  merely,  but  to  all 
nations,  that  he  was  to  be  sent.  The  person  who  was 
chosen  was  the  bitterest  enemy  of  the  Christians. 

John.  Their  enemy  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  His  name  was  Saul,  which  was  after- 
wards changed  to  Paul.  He  was  a  lawyer,  of  good  edu- 
cation, and  of  extensive  influence,  and  had  been  very  ac- 
tive and  cruel  in  persecuting  the  Christians ;  and  it  was 
on  his  journey  to  Damascus,  a  large  city  here,  (pointing 
to  D.,  a  little  to  the  North  East  of  Judea,)  where  he  was 
going,  to  take  and  imprison  some  Christians,  that  Christ 
appeared  to  him,  and  changed  him  from  an  enemy  to  a 
friend. 

Roger.  How  was  it  ?  I  remember  something  about  it, 
but  do  not  remember  it  exactly. 

Teacher.  I  cannot  stop  to  describe  it  to  you  now  :  you 
can  read  it  at  any  time,  in  the  Acts.  Paul  immediately 
began  to  preach  the  gospel,  and  was  soon,  in  consequence 
of  it,  involved  in  great  difficulties  and  dangers. 

Roger.  Did  Christ  send  him  away  to  the  other  nations  ? 

Teacher.  He  told  him  that  he  was  going  to  send  him 
8 


86  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

First  preaching  to  the  Gentiles  hy  Peter. 

far  away  to  the  Gentiles ;  but  he  did  not  direct  him  to  go 
immediately.  The  second  thing  which  I  mentioned 
just  now,  had  not  been  done.  I  mean,  the  Jewish  Chris- 
tians were  not  yet  prepared  to  have  the  gospel  preached 
to  any  but  Jews. 

Samuel.  Ought  they  not  to  have  been  willing,  without 
there  being  any  pains  taken  to  prepare  them  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  perhaps  they  ought.  But  God  is  always 
kind  and  condescending,  even  in  his  manner  of  removing 
the  prejudices  and  correcting  the  faults  of  those  who  love 
him.  Had  Paul  been  sent  away  immediately  to  the  Gen- 
tiles, they  might,  through  the  influence  of  long-established 
prejudices,  have  thought  it  the  inexperience  and  rashness 
of  the  new  convert,  and  might  have  been  tempted  to 
commit  sin  by  opposing  what  Christ  had  directed. 

Samuel.  Well,  what  was  done  to  prevent  this  1 

Teacher.  It  was  so  ordered  that  one  of  the  original 
apostles,  one  of  well  known  and  established  character, 
and  who  possessed  very  fully  the  confidence  of  the  Chris- 
tians, should  carry  the  gospel  to  a  Gentile.  This  was 
Peter.  By  God's  direction  he  went  to  an  officer  in  the 
Roman  army,  whose  name  was  Cornelius,  to  explain  to 
him  the  character  of  Christ,  and  the  way  to  forgiveness 
of  sin,  and  to  everlasting  happiness  in  heaven,  through 
him.  Cornelius  gladly  believed,  and  joined  the  Christian 
church  ;  and  this  conversion  of  a  Roman  soldier,  through 
the  preaching  of  the  apostle  Peter,  was  soon  noised  abroad, 
and  excited  much  attention.  Peter  soon  took  occasion  to 
explain  to  the  Christians  at  Jerusalem  the  reasons  for  his 
conduct,  and  they  rejoiced  with  him,  that  the  way  of  sal- 
vation was  now  opened  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

John.  Was  Paul  now  sent  away  ? 
Teacher.  Yes  :  very  soon  after  this,  he  was  at  Tarsus, 
which  you  see  here,  (pointing  to  T,  near  the  North  East 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  87 

Paal's  first  Mission.  Greeks. 

corner,  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,)  where  he  was  born. 
He  had  escaped  here  from  the  enemies  who  sought  his 
life  soon  after  his  conversion.  There  was  a  large  church 
at  Antioch,  (pointing  to  Antioch,)  near  Tarsus.  This 
church  was  directed  to  send  forth  Paul  with  Barnabas,  to 
accompany  him  to  the  work  for  which  they  had  been 
called.  They  accordingly  did  so,  and  after  a  solemn 
service  of  fasting  and  prayer,  they  sent  them  away. 

John.  Which  way  did  they  go  1 

Teacher.  They  came  down  from  Antioch,  (which  was 
back  a  little  way  from  the  sea,)  to  Seleucia,  the  nearest 
seaport,  where  they  embarked  in  a  vessel  and  sailed  away 
upon  the  sea. 

John.  Upon  the  Mediterranean  Sea  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  They  came  out  to  this  island,  called 
Cyprus.  This  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Romans,  and 
was  governed  by  a  Roman  officer  called  a  deputy.  This 
deputy  sent  for  them,  and  after  hearing  them  explain  the 
truths  of  Christianity,  believed.  They  had  some  diffi- 
culty here  with  a  sorcerer,  which  you  read  an  account  of 
in  the  Acts.  They  soon  left  Cyprus,  and  went  to  the 
main  land  again,  at  Perga,  which  you  see  here,  (pointing 
to  Perga.)  I  have  marked  the  track  by  a  dotted  lino 
upon  the  map. 

John.  Did  they  not  sail  any  more  1 

Teacher.  No,  not  at  present.  They  travelled  about  in 
these  provinces,  painted  different  colors.  Pamphylia, 
Pisidia,  &c.  preaching  the  gospel  in  all  the  large  towns. 

Roger.  Was  this  country  inhabited  by  the  Romans  ? 

Teacher.  No  :  it  was  under  the  Roman  government, 
but  the  people  were  generally  Greeks.  This  had  been  a 
part  of  the  great  Grecian  empire  until  the  Romans  had 
conquered  it.  Paul  and  Barnabas,  however,  generally 
preached  first  in  the  Jewish  synagogues. 


88  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Synagogues.  Heathen  gods.  Paul's  preaching. 

John.  What  were  the  synagogues  ? 

Teacher.  They  were  buildings  for  public  worship,  which 
the  Jews  built  in  all  the  towns  where  many  of  them  were 
settled.  They  used  to  assemble  in  these  to  hear  the 
Bible  read,  that  is,  the  Old  Testament,  and  to  pray ; 
sometimes  to  these  was  added  preaching. 

Roger.  Did  the  other  persons  who  lived  in  these  towns, 
the  Greeks  and  the  Romans,  come  to  meeting  in  the 
Jews'  synagogues  ? 

Teacher.  No,  not  often.  They  did  not  believe  in 
Jehovah,  the  only  God,  but  they  thought  there  were  a 
great  many  gods  and  goddesses — such  as  one  god  of  the 
earth,  and  another  of  the  air,  another  of  water.  So  also 
they  had  a  god  of  war,  and  of  peace,  and  of  wisdom,  and 
a  great  many  others  besides.  In  many  places  they  had 
temples  built  for  some  of  these,  and  they  offered  sacrifices 
to  them. 

Samuel.  Why  did  Paul  preach  in  the  Jewish  syna- 
gogues ?    I  thought  he  was  sent  to  preach  to  the  Gentiles. 

Teacher.  So  he  was  :  but  whenever  he  came  into  any 
place,  he  always  first  endeavored  to  convince  the  Jews 
that  Christ  was  the  Saviour  who  had  been  promised  in 
the  Old  Testament.  He  usually,  in  order  to  do  this, 
went  into  their  synagogues  and  read  the  descriptions  of 
the  Saviour  in  their  own  Bibles,  and  then  showed  how 
they  all  applied  to  Jesus,  who  he  told  them  had  been 
lately  crucified,  and  had  risen  again  from  the  dead,  at 
Jerusalem.  After  he  had  thus  tried  to  convince  the  Jews 
that  their  Saviour  had  come,  he  then  turned  to  the  Gen- 
tiles, and  endeavored  to  persuade  them  to  give  up  their 
imaginary  gods,  and  to  worship  Jehovah,  and  believe  on 
his  Son. 

Roger.  How  long  did  they  stay  in  this  part  of  the 
country  ? 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  89 

Paul's  return.  A  difficulty  arises. 

Teacher.  Not  a  great  while.  They  suffered  a  great 
many  hardships  and  dangers,  and  once  or  twice  Paul  was 
almost  killed  by  his  enemies,  as  you  may  see  by  reading 
the  account  in  the  Acts.  However,  a  great  many  be- 
lieved, and  several  churches  were  established  ;  and  at 
last,  Paul  and  Barnabas  came  down  to  the  sea-coast  at 
Perga,  and  sailed  for  home.  They  landed  at  Seleucia, 
and  then  went  up  to  Antioch.  As  soon  as  they  arrived, 
the  Christians,  who  had  sent  them,  came  together,  and 
Paul  and  Barnabas  related  to  them  all  that  they  had  done, 
and  all  that  had  happened  to  them. 

Roger.  Why  did  they  not  go  farther  before  they  re- 
turned home  ? 

Teacher.  I  do  not  know  :  they  undoubtedly  had  good 
reasons.  But  they  did  not  remain  long  at  home  :  they 
soon  set  out  upon  another  excursion.  Though  before 
this,  a  difficult  question  arose,  which  was  to  be  settled 
first. 

Roger.  About  which  way  they  should  go  1 

Teacher.  No  :  it  was  upon  a  much  more  important  sub- 
ject. You  recollect  I  told  you  that  the  Jewish  Christians 
were  at  first  rather  reluctant  to  have  the  gospel  preached 
to  any  but  Jews  ;  but  since  God's  will  in  regard  to  this 
had  been  plainly  made  known,  they  generally  acquiesced ; 
but  now  some  of  them  said  that  if  the  gospel  was  preach- 
ed to  any  of  the  Gentiles,  they  could  not  embrace  it  and 
become  Christians,  unless  they  became  Jews  too. 

John.  How?    What  did  they  mean  by  becoming  Jews? 

Teacher.  They  meant,  complying  with  all  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  which  were  required  by  the  Jewish  law,  which 
was  given  to  the  Israelites,  while  they  were  travelling 
from  Egypt  to  Canaan.  Some,  I  say,  thought  that  all  the 
converts  ought  to  keep  this  law,  as  well  as  obey  Christ's 
commands  ;  while  others  thought  that  the  Gentiles,  who 
8* 


90  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    RIBLE. 

Difficulty  settled.  A  contention. 

believed  in  Christ,  were  only  to  obey  the  commands,  and 
keep  the  precepts  of  the  new  dispensation.  They  thought 
that  the  Jewish  law  was  designed  only  for  the  descend- 
ants of  Abraham  until  the  Messiah  should  come,  and  then 
that  the  Christian  precepts  and  ordinances  should  take  the 
place  of  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Mosaic  law. 

Samuel.  How  was  the  question  decided  ? 
Teacher.  They  sent  Paul  and  Barnabas  from  Antioch 
to  Jerusalem,  to  call  together  there  a  council  of  the  church 
to  consider  this  question  ;  and  this  council,  after  carefully 
considering  the  subject,  saw  that  the  future  converts  to 
Christianity  ought  not  to  be  burdened  with  the  Jewish 
ceremonies ;  and  the  council  accordingly  wrote  a  letter 
to  the  church  at  Antioch,  and  made  known  to  them  this 
decision. 

John.  Did  Paul  and  Barnabas  carry  back  the  letter? 

Teacher.  Yes;  and  soon  after  they  arrived  at  Antioch, 
they  set  out  on  another  mission.  They  however  could 
not  agree  who  should  go  with  them  ;  and  so,  after  some 
contention,  they  separated,  and  went  different  ways. 

Roger.  Contention?     I  thought  they  were  inspired. 

Teacher.  Yes,  Paul  was  inspired  to  write  nothing  but 
what  was  true  ;  but  that  does  not  prove  that  he  never 
acted  wrong  :  though  perhaps  it  is  not  certain  that  he 
was  wrong  in  this  case.  But  we  cannot  stop  to  inquire 
about  that  now.  Paul  set  out,  in  company  with  one  or 
two  others,  on  his  second  mission. 

Roger.  Did  he  go  by  water  again  ? 

Teacher.  No  :  this  time  he  went  by  land.  He  passed 
around  the  North  Eastern  corner  of  the  Mediterranean 
Sea,  towards  Pamphylia,  where  he  had  been  before. — 
John,  can  you  tell  through  what  provinces  he  must  pass  ? 

John.  (Looking  upon  the  map.)  Through  a  part  of 
Syria  and  Cilicia. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  91 

Paul's  second  Mission.  Greece. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  he  passed  through,  in  this  way,  almost 
all  this  country  lying  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the 
Black  Sea,  which  you  see  is  divided  into  many  small  prov- 
inces. At  last,  he  came  to  the  North  West  part  of  it,  to 
this  province,  (pointing  to  Mysia.) 

Roger.  Did  he  stop  here? 

Teacher.  He  could  not  go  any  farther  by  land ;  for  you 
see  the  country  is  surrounded  by  water  on  the  West,  and 
North,  and  South.  There  were  very  rich  and  populous 
countries  beyond,  and  many  large  and  splendid  cities,  in 
Macedonia  and  Achaia  ;  for  this  was,  not  long  before,  the 
centre  of  the  Grecian  empire.  Paul,  however,  seems  to  have 
hesitated  a  little,  whether  it  were  best  for  him  to  go  over. 

Samuel.  Did  he  meet  with  much  success  in  these  prov- 
inces of  Asia  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  and  with  very  great  success,  but  also 
with  great  opposition.  Great  multitudes  flocked  to  hear 
him  ;  but  many  were  exceedingly  enraged  against  him, 
and  several  times  his  life  was  in  the  greatest  danger. — 
There  is  an  account  given  in  Acts,  of  what  happened  to 
him  in  the  several  towns  as  he  passed  along. 

Samuel.  Where  did  he  at  last  decide  to  go,  from  Mysia? 

Teacher.  God  directed  him  to  go  on  to  Macedonia,  and 
he  accordingly  did  ;  and  after  travelling  and  preaching 
some  time  in  this  region,  he  came  down  here  to  Athens 
and  Corinth,  two  of  the  most  celebrated  cities  in  the 
world.  He  preached  and  established  churches  in  almost 
all  the  towns  and  cities  which  he  visited  ;  and  he  suffered 
many  hardships,  and  met  with  many  interesting  adven- 
tures, which  we  must  not  stop  now  to  consider.  At  last, 
he  set  out  on  his  return,  and  arrived  safely  at  Antioch. 

Roger.  Why  did  he  go  to  Antioch  every  time  ? 

Teacher.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  large  and  flour- 
ishing church  at  Antioch,  and  you  remember  it  was  this 


92  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Paul's  letters.  His  return. 

church  which  ordained  Paul  for  this  work.  Perhaps  the 
Christians  could  be  in  greater  safety  at  Antioch  than  at 
Jerusalem.  However,  Paul  did  not  long  remain  at  home. 
He  set  out  again,  travelled  through  Asia,  and  came  to 
Ephesus,  a  very  large  city  here,  (pointing  to  Ephesus,  in 
the  western  part  of  Asia.)  He  remained  in  this  city  for 
some  time,  and  then  he  went  over  to  Macedonia,  and 
travelled  down  through  Greece,  visiting  the  churches 
which  had  been  planted  before  in  this  country.  Besides 
visiting  the  churches,  he  wrote  letters  to  a  great  many, 
while  he  was  upon  these  journeys.  John,  did  you  ever 
hear  of  these  letters? 

John.  No,  Sir ;  I  do  not  remember  that  I  have. 

Teacher.  What  is  there  in  the  New  Testament  after 
the  Acts  ? 

John.  There  are  a  great  many  other  short  books — Ro- 
mans and  Corinthians,  and  some  more  :  I  do  not  remem- 
ber all  the  names. 

Teacher.  Why  do  these  books  have  such  names  as  Ro- 
mans?    What  does  Romans  mean  ? 

John.  I  suppose  it  means  the  people  who  live  in  Rome. 
I  do  not  know  why  the  book  is  called  so. 

Roger.  It  is  called  the  epistle  to  the  Romans. 

Teacher.  And  what  does  epistle  mean  ? 

Roger.  I  believe  it  means  a  letter. 

Teacher.  Yes,  these  books  are  almost  all  of  them  let- 
ters written  by  Paul  to  the  various  churches  which  he  had 
established,  giving  them  advice  and  instruction.  A  great 
many  of  them  were  written  while  he  was  upon  these  jour- 
neys. But  I  must  hasten.  Paul  returned,  after  a  time, 
to  Judea  again,  where  he  met  with  new  and  great  diffi- 
culties. The  Jews  determined  to  kill  him  ;  and  soon 
after  he  arrived   at  Jerusalem,   one  day,   while  he  was  in 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  93 

Puul's  difficulties  at  Jerusalem. 

the  temple  there,  they  collected  in  a  great  mob,  took  him, 
brought  him  out  of  the  temple,  and  began  to  beat  him, 
and  were  going  to  kill  him. 

Roger,  How  did  he  escape  ? 

Teacher.  A  Roman  officer  came  down,  with  some  sol- 
diers, and  rescued  him,  and  carried  him  off  into  a  castle, 
where  he  was  safe.  The  next  day,  the  officer  told  the 
Jews,  that  if  they  wished  to  try  Paul  regularly,  according 
to  law,  he  would  bring  him  down  before  their  council. 
Do  either  of  you  remember  the  name  of  the  great  council 
of  the  Jews? 

Samuel.  The  Sanhedrim. 

Teacher.  Yes:  this  council  assembled  accordingly,  and 
Paul  was  sent  before  it  by  the  Roman  officer.  Here  he 
made  a  very  able  defence,  and  in  consequence  of  it  the 
council  could  not  agree  in  regard  to  him.  There  was  so 
great  a  contention  among  them,  that  the  Roman  officer 
feared  they  would  pull  Paul  to  pieces  ;  and  he  sent  down 
some  soldiers,  who  took  him  away  from  them  by  force, 
and  brought  him  back  to  the  castle. 

Roger.  What  did  he  do  with  him  then  ? 

Teacher.  His  enemies  formed  a  plot  to  take  away  his 
life,  which  was  very  cunningly  devised,  and  it  failed  by 
being  found  out  in  a  remarkable  manner.  You  can  read 
the  account  in  the  23d  chapter  of  Acts.  The  Roman  of- 
ficer then  sent  Paul  down  to  Caesarea,  protecting  him  by 
a  strong  guard. 

Samuel.  Where  was  Caesarea  ? 

Teacher.  It  was  West  of  Jerusalem,  on  the   sea-coast, 

where  the  Roman  governor  resided.     The  Roman  officer 

i  who  had  protected  Paul  at  Jerusalem,   sent  him  down  to 

this  governor,  so  that  he  might  be  tried  there,  under  his 

authority. 


94  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Paul's  appeal.  Caesar. 

John.  What  did  the  governor  do  with  him  ? 

Teacher.  He  sent  up  to  Jerusalem  to  have  his  accusers 
come  down,  and  then  he  was  tried  ;  but  nothing  was 
proved  against  him.  However,  the  governor  kept  him  a 
prisoner,  though  not  closely  confined,  for  about  two  years, 
and  then  another  man  was  appointed  governor. 

Very  soon  after  the  new  governor  had  entered  upon  his 
office,  the  Jews  applied  to  him,  with  a  request  that  Paul 
might  be  tried  and  condemned.  The  new  governor  then 
called  Paul  before  him,  with  his  accusers  also,  and,  after 
a  slight  examination,  proposed  to  him  that  he  should  go 
up  to  Jerusalem,  and  there  be  tried  by  the  Jews.  Paul 
said  no  :  he  was  not  accountable,  he  said,  to  the  Jews  : 
he  was  on  trial  before  the  Romans,  and  he  appealed  to 
Caesar. 

John.  What  did  he  mean  by  that  ? 

Teacher.  Caesar  was  the  Roman  emperor,  the  great 
monarch  at  Rome,,  who  reigned  over  all  these  countries, 
appointed  all  these  governors,  and  commanded  all  the  ar- 
mies.    Paul  said,  he  would  go  and  be  tried  before  him. 

Roger.  Suppose  the  governor  would  not  send  him. 

Teacher.  I  believe  he  was  obliged  to,  by  the  laws,  in 
cases  of  this  kind.  At  any  rate,  he  did  determine  to  send 
him  ;  and  not  long  after,  Paul  embarked  in  a  large  vessel, 
and  set  out  on  his  voyage  to  Rome.  Can  you  tell,  John, 
in  what  direction  he  was  going  I 

John.  West. 

Teacher.  And  over  what  sea  ? 

John.  The  Mediterranean. 

Teacher.  Yes,  it  was  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  a 
very  interesting  account  of  the  voyage  is  given  in  the 
Acts.  Do  you  remember,  Samuel,  whether  they  reached 
Rome  without  anv  difficultv  ? 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 


Close  of  Scripture  History. 


Samuel.  No,  Sir,  they  did  not :  they  were  shipwrecked 
and  cast  upon  the  island  of  Melita. 

Teacher.  Yes,  and  afterwards  went  to  Rome  in  another 
ship.  Here  Paul  remained  two  years,  as  a  prisoner  ;  and 
here  the  history  of  the  Bible  closes. 

John.  What  became  of  Paul  afterwards  ? 

Teacher.  The  Bible  does  not  tell,  and  it  is  rather  un- 
certain. 

Samuel.  Is  this  the  end  of  the  Bible  ?  There  are  seve- 
ral books  after  the  Acts. 

Teacher.  Yes  ;  but  they  are  not  historical  books  :  they 
are  letters,  which  do  not  relate  the  history  of  any  individ- 
uals mentioned  in  the  Bible. 

John.  And  is  this  all  which  you  are  going  to  teach  us 
this  winter  ? 

Teacher.  No  :  there  are  several  other  things  about  the 
Bible,  which  I  wish  to  explain  to  you.  But  before  leaving 
the  subject  of  History,  I  wish  to  say  something  to  you 
upon  the  subject  of  Scripture  Chronology.  Do  you  know, 
Roger,  what  is  meant  by  Chronology  ? 

Roger.  No,  Sir. 

Samuel.  Is  it  not  the  time  when  events  happened  ? 
Teacher.  Yes  :    it  is  the    science  of  determining  the 
times  of  events.     All,  however,  which  I  wish  to  have  you 
attend  to  now,    is   a  way  of  representing  the   times  of 
events.     Do  you  know,  Samuel,   how  long  it  is  from  the 
creation  of  the  world  to  the  present  time  ? 
Samuel.  About  eighteen  hundred  years. 
Roger.  I  thought  it  was  eighteen  hundred  years  since 
the  time  of  Christ :  and  the  world  was  created  lono-  before 

*  o 

that. 

Teacher.  How  long '? 
Roger.  I  do  not  know. 


96  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  Chronological  line. 

Samuel.  I  remember  now  :  it  was  four  thousand  years 
from  the  creation  to  the  time  of  Christ,  and  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  from  that  time  to  this. 

Teacher.  And  how  much  does  that  make  in  all  ? 

Roger.  Five  thousand  eight  hundred  years. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  now  we  may  represent  this  period  by  a 
line. 

While  the  teacher  said  this,  he  drew  upon  a  piece  of 
paper  a  long  line,  with  a  pen  and  a  rule,  which  were 
upon  the  table. 

Teacher.  Now,  as  the   time  from   the  creation  to  the 
present  time  is  nearly  six  thousand  years,  we  will  suppose 
this  line  represents   six  thousand  years.     If  I   divide   it 
now  into  six  equal  parts,  how  much  will  each  represent? 
John.  One  thousand  years. 

Teacher.  Yes.  Now,  we  may  divide  each  thousand 
years  into  ten  parts  ;  and  the  line  will  then  be  divided  into 
hundreds.  But  I  will  make  the  marks  at  the  end  of  each 
thousand  years  larger  than  the  others,  and  write  the 
figures  over  each  division. 

While  the  teacher  said  this,  he  drew  a  line,  and  di- 
vided it  as  follows  : — 

1000     2000     3000     4000     5000     6000 

i i I i i i 1 


Teacher.  Now,  this  line  represents  the  whole  number 
of  years  from  the  creation  to  the  present  time,  and  even  a 
little  beyond  this  time,  as  it  is  not  yet  quite  six  thousand 
years  since  the  creation.  Now,  suppose  I  wish  to  mark 
the  birth  of  Christ  upon  this  line,  where  should  it  be 
marked. 

John.  Here,  (pointing  to  the  division  marked  4000.) 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE.  97 

Times  of  events; — their  places  upon  the  line. 

Teacher,  Why? 

John.  Because  Christ  was  born  4000  years  after  the 
creation. 

Samuel.  Was  it  not  4004  years  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  and  will  this  make  any  difference  in 
the  place  of  marking  it  ? 

Samuel.  I  should  think  it  should  be  beyond  the  division 
for  four  thousand  years,  because  there  are  four  years 
besides. 

Teacher.  And  how  much  farther  1 

Samuel.  (Hesitating.)     I  do  not  know. 

Teacher.  Should  you  think  it  ought  to  be  as  much  far- 
ther as  to  the  first  small  division  ? 

Roger.  No,  Sir :  because  that  is  for  a  hundred  years, 
and  it  should  be  only  four  years. 

Teacher.  Right.  We  cannot  tell  precisely  where  it 
should  be  marked,  but  it  will  be  near  enough  if  we  maka 
it  a  very  little  farther. 

Samuel.  Could  we  not  have  the  line  divided  into  smaller 
parts  than  a  hundred  years  1 

Teacher.  Yes,  by  making  it  longer  ;  then  each  of  the 
parts  would  be  longer  and  might  be  subdivided.  Then* 
would  be  another  advantage  of  having  the  line  longer  : 
can  you  think  what  it  would  be  ? 

Samuel.  Yes  :  we  could  write  more  names,  and  thus 
represent  more  events,  without  having  it  crowded. 

Teacher.  Yes  :  but  I  think  it  will  not  be  necessary 
now.  This  line  will  answer  our  present  purpose  very 
well.  You  can  perhaps  make  more  full  and  perfect  one* 
yourselves,  at  some  future  time. 

The  teacher  then  began  to  mark  upon  the  line  the 
principal  events  which  he  had  mentioned  in  relating  the 
9 


9S 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE. 


The  Chronological  line. 


course  of  Scripture  History.     The  line   appeared  when 
finished  as  follows  : 


1000  — 


1656  -  Flood. 


2000  l 
2078  i 

2308 

2510  j 
2553} 

5909) 
299-3  \ 

sooo \ 

3029  j 

3398  ) 
3468  \ 


4000; 
4004 
4037  ! 


Call  of  Abraham. 

Settlement  in  E. 

Departure  from  Egypt. 
Settlement  in  Canaan. 


Establishment  of  Mooa 
-Building  of  the  Temple. 
Revolt  of  the  Ten  Tribes. 

Captivity  of Judah  and  Benjamin. 
Return  of  Judah  and  Benjamin 


-Birth  of  Christ. 
Crucifixion  of  Christ. 


5000  — 


C000- 


CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE.  99 

Advantages  of  the  line.  Another  method. 

Samuel.  What  is  the  use  of  making  a  chronological 
line  like  this  ?  It  does  not  learn  us  any  thing,  for 
we  are  obliged  to  know  the  time  of  each  event  before  we 
can  write  it  down. 

Teacher.  True  :  we  do  not  learn  the  times  of  events  by 
it.  But  it  helps  us  to  gain  more  correct  ideas  of  the 
distances  between  events,  and  it  helps  us  also  to  remem- 
ber them.  Can  you  tell  me  without  looking  upon  the 
line,  which  was  the  longest  time,  from  the  creation 
to  the  flood,  or  from  the  flood  to  the  settlement  of  the 
Jews  in  Canaan  ? 

Samuel.  I  should  think  it  was  much  longer  from  the 
flood  to  the  settlement  in  Canaan. 

Roger.  Yes,  Sir  :  for  the  flood  you  know  was  the  first 
thing  almost  after  the  creation. 

Teacher.  Now  look  at  the  line,  and  see. 

Samuel.  (After  looking.)  I  see  I  was  wrong,  there  is 
a  much  longer  part  of  the  line  between  the  creation  and 
the  flood. 

Teacher.  Yes :  and  the  reason  why  you  supposed  it 
was  a  short  time  is  because  the  Bible  gives  only  a  short 
account  of  it.  Now  drawing  such  a  line  as  this  serves  to 
correct  all  such  mistaken  notions. 

But  there  are  several  other  ways  of  obtaining  clear 
ideas  in  regard  to  the  times  of  events.  There  are,  you 
know,  six  days  in  the  week,  not  reckoning  the  Sab- 
bath. Now  we  can  let  these  six  days  represent  the  six 
thousand  years,  and  assist  ourselves  to  remember  the  times 
of  events  by  considering  in  what  part  of  the  week  they 
would  come.  On  this  plan,  Roger,  what  day  would  rep- 
resent the  first  thousand  years  ? 

Roger.  Monday  ;  and  Tuesday  the  second,  and  Wed- 
nesday the  third  thousand  years. 


100  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Days  of  the  week  employed. 

Teacher.  And  can  yon  tell  me  what  events  would  hap- 
pen on  Monday  1 

Roger.  I  can  tell  by  looking  upon  the  chronological 
line,  and  seeing  what  events  happened  in  the  first  thou- 
sand years. 

Teacher.  Well,  look. 

Roger.  (After  looking.)     There  are  none. 

Teacher.  No  :  we  did  not  mark  any,  but  perhaps  you 
recollect  some  mentioned  in  the  Bible. 

John.  Cain  killed  Abel  then. 

Roger.  And  the  fall  of  man  took  place. 

Teacher.  Right.  Now,  can  any  of  you  tell  in  what  part 
of  the  chronological  week  the  flood  took  place  ? 

Samuel.  On  Tuesday. 

Teacher.  Why? 

Samuel.  Because  it  was  in  the  second  thousand  years. 

Teacher.  What  part  of  Tuesday  would  it  be,  forenoon 
or  afternoon  ?     Can  you  tell,  John  ? 

J  oh?}.  No,  Sir  :  I  do  not  know  how  to  tell. 

Teacher.  In  what  year  was  the  flood  ? 

John.  (Looking  upon  the  chronological  line.)    In  1656. 

Teacher.  Yes.  Now,  what  is  the  middle  of  the  second 
thousand  years  ? 

John.  1500  years. 

Teacher.  Well,  is  1656  before  or  after  the  middle  ? 

John.  It  is  after  ;  and  therefore  it  would  be  after  the 
middle  of  Tuesday,  or  in  the  afternoon. 

Teacher.  In  the  same  way  we  may  fix  the  times  of  all 
the  principal  events  in  the  chronological  week,  and  re- 
member them  easier. 

Samuel.  The  birth  of  Christ  would  be  on  Friday  mor- 
ning— would  it  not  ? 

Teacher.  Yes.  And  when  would  be  the  discovery  of 
America  ? 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  101 

Times  of  events.  The  boys  go  home. 

Samuel.  I  do  not  know  in  what  year  it  was. 

Teacher.  In  1492. 

Samuel.  That  means  1492  years  after  Christ :  does  it 
not? 

Teacher.  Yes  ;  and  we  must  add  the  4004  years  before 
Christ,  to  find  out  how  long  it  was  since  the  creation. 

Roger.  It  would  be  5496.  So  that  the  discovery  of 
America  would  be  in  the  fifth  thousand  years. 

Teacher.  No,  not  in  the  fifth,  because  five  thousand 
years  had  passed,  and  more  than  four  hundred  years  of 
the  sixth. 

Roger.  Then  it  would  be  on  Saturday,  which  repre- 
sented the  sixth  thousand  years. 

Teacher.  What  part  of  Saturday  ? 

Samuel.  Almost  Saturday  noon. 

Teacher.  And  what  would  represent  the  present  time  ? 

Roger.  Saturday  night. 

Teacher.  Not  Saturday  night  exactly. 

Roger.  No :  because  the  six  thousand  years  are  not 
yet  out.     But  it  would  be  late  in  the  afternoon. 

The  teacher  talked  with  the  boys  some  time  longer ; 
and  among  other  things  he  said,  that  it  would  be  a  good 
plan  for  each  of  them  to  make  a  chronological  Jine,  and 
mark  upon  it  all  the  remarkable  events  which  had  hap- 
pened since  the  world  was  created,  if  they  could  find  the 
years  in  which  they  happened.  He  told  them  they  might 
mark  down  the  events  which  are  mentioned  in  other 
books  besides  the  Bible,  if  they  chose.  After  he  had 
finished  talking  to  them  upon  this  subject,  the  boys  went 
home  ;  and  on  the  way  Roger  said  he  meant  to  make  a 
chronological  line,  and  that  he  would  carry  it  to  school, 
and  show  it  to  Samuel. 

It  happened,  however,  that  Samuel,  and  Roger,  and 
9* 


102  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Attempts  to  make  a  Chronological  line. 

John,  and  all  the  other  boys  in  that  school,  were  very 
busy  all  that  week,  in  the  play  hours  of  the  school,  in 
building  a  large  snow  fort,  and  they  did  not  think  much 
of  the  chronological  line.  Samuel  did  not  know  whether 
Roger  had  tried  to  make  one  or  not,  until  the  next  week, 
when  the  boys  were  going  together,  on  Wednesday  even- 
ing, to  the  teacher's  :  and  then  he  asked  him  about  it. 

Roger  said  that  he  tried  to  make  one,  but  that  he  did  not 
do  it  very  well.  He  drew  his  line,  and  divided  it  into 
parts,  but  he  found  sometimes  a  good  many  events  came 
so  near  together  that  he  had  not  room  to  write  them  ;  and 
so  in  some  parts  of  his  line  the  words  were  crowded  and 
blotted,  and  in  other  parts  there  was  nothing  at  all.  He 
did  not  see,  he  said,  why  the  events  did  not  happen  equally 
in  all  the  parts. 

Samuel  Perhaps  you  did  not  know  them  all. 

John.  Why  did  not  you  make  the  line  longer  ?  then 
there  would  be  more  room. 

Roger.  I  did  make  it  as  long  as  the  paper  was. 

Samuel.  Where  is  the  paper  ?     I  want  to  see  it. 

Roger.  I  threw  it  away.  I  mean  to  make  a  better  one. 
I  have  thought  of  a  way  to  make  one  very,  very  long,  so 
us  to  be  sure  to  have  room  enough  to  write  all  the  events. 
I  mean  to  have  it  as  long  as  I  am,  from  head  to  foot. 

John.  I  don't  believe  you  can  get  a  piece  of  paper  long 
enough  for  that. 

$er.  I  am  going  to  paste  a  good  many  pieces  together 
in  a  row,  and  then  draw  the  line  over  them  ali^  and  then 
when  it  is  finished  I  shall  roll  it  up. 

Samuel.  There  is  another  way  in  which  we  might  do 
it.  We  might  make  a  little  book,  with  six  pages,  and 
draw  a  line  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  each  page — and 
let  each  of  these  lines  be  a  thousand  years.  We  might 
have  the  lines  on  one  side  of  the  page,   and  the  events 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  103 

Various  plans. 

might  be  written  in  the  middle  of  the  page,  opposite  the 
proper  parts  of  the  line. 

Roger.  I  do  not  think  this  would  be  so  well,  because  we 
should  not  see  the  whole  six  thousand  years  together. 

Samuel.  No,  we  should  not  see  it  all  together  ;  but  a 
book  would  be  so  much  more  handy  to  carry  than  a  roll, 
and  then  it  would  not  wear  out.  so  quick.  But  I  think 
you  had  better  make  a  roll,  and  I  will  make  a  book,  and 
then  we  will  compare  them. 

Very  soon  after  this,  the  boys  arrived  at  the  teacher's 
house. 


104  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  boys  assemble  Teacher  sick- 


CONVERSATION  VII. 

The  boys  knocked  at  the  teacher's  door,  and  while 
they  were  waiting  for  some  one  to  open  it,  John  observed 
that  there  was  no  light  in  the  parlor  where  they  had  been 
accustomed  to  meet  with  the  teacher ;  but  that  there  was 
a  light  in  the  chamber  above.  Samuel  said  he  was  afraid 
somebody  was  sick.  Presently  the  door  opened  softly, 
and  a  woman  appeared,  and,  after  looking  at  them  an  in- 
stant, said,  Do  you  want  any  thing,  boys  ? 

Samuel.  "We  came  to  see  our  teacher :  we  always  come 
on  Wednesday  evenings. 

Woman.  Your  teacher  is  sick,  and  you  cannot  see  him 
to-night. 

Samuel.  What  is  the  matter  with  him  ? 

Woman.  I  do  not  know  :  he  has  been  sick  two  or  three 
days.  The  doctor  says,  perhaps  he  will  not  live  ;  so  you 
had  better  go  home. 

Roger  whispered  to  Samuel  to  ask  the  woman  if  they 
could  not  do  any  thing  for  him — but  just  then  some  one 
at  the  top  of  the  stairs  spoke  in  a  low  voice  to  the  woman, 
and  asked  her  if  those  were  the  Sabbath  school  boys  who 
were  at  the  door.  The  woman  turned  to  the  boys,  and 
asked,  Are  you  the  Sabbath  school  boys  ? 

Yes,  ma'am,  said  John. 

Then,  said  the  voice  at  the  top  of  the  stairs,  the 
teacher  says  he  should  like  to  have  them  walk  up  :  he 
wants  to  see  them  a  few  moments. 

Samuel  and  Roger  immediately  walked  in — but  John 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  105 

Appearance  of  a  sick  room. 

remained  upon  the  steps,  apparently  unwilling  to  follow 
them.  Come,  John,  said  Roger,  as  he  stood  holding 
the  door,  ready  to  shut  it. 

John  said  he  did  not  want  to  go. 

What — don't  you  want  to  go  and  see  the  teacher?  said 
Roger. 

I  don't  want  to  see  him,  if  he  is  sick,  and  going  to  die. 

He  is  not  going  to  die  now,  and  he  wants  to  see  us  : — 
come,  you  must  go. 

With  some  persuasion  he  was  led  in,  and  they  all  walked 
softly  up  stairs.  John  had  never  seen  a  person  danger- 
ously sick,  and  he  expected  to  find  the  teacher  suffering 
a  great  deal  of  pain,  and  looking  very  unhappy.  But 
when  the  door  opened,  and  he  followed  Samuel  and  Roger 
in,  he  was  surprised  to  find  every  thing  looking  so  cheer- 
ful and  pleasant.  There  was  a  bright  glowing  fire  upon 
the  hearth,  and  it  shed  its  light  strongly  over  all  the  ob- 
jects in  the  room.  The  teacher  lay,  or  rather  reclined,  in 
his  bed,  his  back  being  raised  by  pillows.  He  was  pale  : 
but  he  smiled  when  the  boys  came  in  ;  and  they  thought 
they  never  saw  him  look  so  happy.  Near  the  bed  there 
was  a  table,  covered  with  phials  and  medicines  ;  and  the 
doctor  was  sitting  by  it,  doing  up  some  little  papers.  The 
teacher's  sister  was  sitting  by  the  side  of  the  fire,  with  a 
Bible  in  her  hand. 

I  am  glad  to  see  you,  boys,  (said  he,  in  a  faint  but 
cheerful  voice,  as  they  entered.)  Sit  down  a  few  minutes  : 
I  want  to  talk  with  you  a  little,  when  the  doctor  has  fin- 
ished giving  his  directions. 

The  boys  sat  down,  and  listened  to  the  doctor,  while  he 

gave  the  directions  to  the  nurse  about  taking  care  of  the 

sick  man   through  the  night.     At  last,   he  turned  to  the 

teacher  himself,  and  said,  taking  hold  of  his  hand, — 

Well,  Sir,  I  must  bid  you  good  evening.     I  hope  you 


106  CONVERSATION'S    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  pious  physician.  Sickness  sudden. 

will  have  a  comfortable  night.  You  may,  however,  suffer 
a  good  deal,  and  you  are  aware  that  you  are  constantly  in 
some  danger.  I  should  not  speak  so  freely  of  this,  if  I 
did  not  see  that  it  does  not  agitate  you. 

Teacher.  I  think,  Sir,  you  will  find  that  the  best  way  to 
keep  me  quiet  and  composed,  is  to  tell  me  openly  and 
plainly  what  is  my  condition.  I  am  not  reluctant  to  die, 
if  it  is  God's  will  :  but  if  my  dying  hour  is  approaching,  I 
wish  to  know  it. 

Doctor.  It  may  be  near — but  I  hope  not.  But  whether 
you  live  or  die,  I  trust  God  will  give  you  resignation  to 
his  will.  But  I  must  leave  you — for  you  must  not  talk 
much.  These  boys,  (continued  he,  looking  at  Samuel 
and  his  companions,)  must  not  stay  long,  or  they  will  tire 
you.  I  am  glad,  however,  that  they  have  come  ;  for  you 
will  do  them  some  good.  It  will  certainly  do  them  good 
to  see  how  a  Christian  feels  and  acts  upon  a  sick  and  per- 
haps a  dying  bed. 

So  saying,  the  pious  physician  bade  all  in  the  room 
good  night,  and  went  away. 

Come,  boys,  said  the  teacher,  come  and  stand  by 
my  bed-side,  for  I  cannot  speak  very  loud. 

They  came  and  stood  by  the  side  of  the  bed,  and  looked, 
with  very  sorrowful  countenances,  upon  the  teacher's  pale 
cheeks  and  wasted  form. 

How  long  have  you  been  sick  1  said  Samuel. 

Teacher.  Not  long.  Last  Sabbath  I  was  at  meeting, 
and  as  well  as  usual ;  and  now  you  see  how  I  am.  It 
does  not  take  long  for  God  to  take  away  our  strength,  and 
bring  us  to  sickness  and  pain. 

John.  I  am  very  sorry  you  are  sick,  Sir. 

Teacher.  I  thank  you  for  feeling  for  me,  John  :  but  I 
do  not  know  that  we  ought  to  be  sorry.  Sickness  does 
a  great  deal  of  good. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  107 

Sickness  teaches  patience  ; — humility. 

Roger.  Good  ?     What  good  does  it  do,  Sir  ? 

Teacher.  Perhaps  I  ought  to  have  said,  it  may  do  a 
great  deal  of  good.  Why,  in  the  first  place,  it  may  in- 
crease our  'patience. 

Roger.  I  should  think,  Sir,  that  to  bear  sickness  and 
pain,  would  make  men  impatient. 

Teacher.  No  :  it  ought  not  to.  Consider,  for  example, 
my  case.  God  has  laid  me  here,  and  sometimes  I  suffer 
a  good  deal  of  pain  :  but  I  know  it  comes  from  Him  ;  and 
I  know  it  is  for  some  good  design,  and  I  try  to  bear  it  pa- 
tiently.  If  I  am  for  a  moment,  when  the  pain  is  severe, 

fretful  or  uneasy, — when  I  think  of  it  afterwards  again,  it 
grieves. me  to  think  of  my  repining  at  an  evil  so  trifling, 
compared  with  what  Christ  willingly  suffered  for  me ;  and 

so  when  the  pain  returns  again,  I  try  to  bear  it  better. 

I  remember,  too,  that  God  is  near  me  all  the  time,  and  that 
he  is  noticing  all  my  feelings,   and   that   he  hears  all  my 
words  ;  and  this  makes  me  careful  to  try  to  please  him. 
.    Samuel.  Sometimes  people   are   sick   without  suffering 
much  pain. 

Teacher.  Yes  ;  and  they  may  learn  patience  another 
way.  Perhaps  they  are  confined  to  their  rooms  a  long, 
very  long  time,  or  perhaps  their  business  is  interrupted 
when  there  was  something  they  were  particularly  desirous 
of  doing  ;  and  these  things  try  their  patience. 

John.  But  sometimes  people  are  sick,  who  are  already 
very  patient.  I  don't  think  you  need  to  have  to  bear 
pain,  to  prevent  your  being  fretful. 

Teacher.  O  yes,  John,  every  body  needs  it.  No  one  is 
as  patient  and  resigned  to  God's  will  as  he  ought  to  be. 
But  there  are  a  great  many  other  advantages  of  sickness. 
It  makes  men  feel  humble. 

Samuel.  How  1 

Teacher.  When  wre  are  strong,  and  healthy,  and  pros- 


108  CONVERSATIONS     ON    THE    BIBLE.  • 

Dependence  upon  God. 

perous,  we  are  very  likely  to  forget  that  God's  power 
alone  holds  us  up  from  day  to  day.  Here  is  Roger  now, 
young  and  vigorous,  he  hardly  knows  what  sickness  is, 
but  he  is  just  as  weak  in  himself,  and  just  as  dependent 
upon  God,  as  I  am,  who  lie   here   scarcely  able  to  turn 

myself  over  in  my  bed. But  I  think   it  very  probable 

that  he  has  not  felt  how  dependent  he  is  upon  God,  while 
he  has  been  at  his  work  and  his  play  to-day,  as  I  hav© 
who  have  been  lying  here  weak  and  low. 

Roger.  I  do  not  think  I  have. 

Teacher.  Now  suppose  God  should  see  that  Roger, 
or  either  of  you  should  be  going  on  from  day  to  day,  for- 
getting your  dependence  upon  him ;  feeling  and  acting 
as  if  you  were  able  to  take  care  of  yourselves,  and  thus 
wrandering  in  heart  from  God,  perhaps  he  would  send 
sickness  to  you,  to  remind  you  that  you  cannot  protect 
yourselves  ; — that  you  are  his  children,  sustained  by  his 
goodness,  and  guarded  by  his  love  ; — and  if  he  should  do 
so,  it  would  be  a  great  mercy,  and  would  do  you  a  great 
deal  of  good. 

Samuel.  But  cannot  we  remember  our  weakness  and 
our  dependence  upon  God,  without  being  sick  1 

Teacher.  Yes  :  undoubtedly  we  might,  but  we  do  not ; 
and  if  sickness  is  improved  aright,  it  reminds  us  of  these 
things.     But  sickness  will  not  of  itself  make  us  humble 

o 

and  patient  without  our  own  efforts,  and  God's  blessing. 

John.  Does  sickness  do  any  other  good  besides  this  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  it  makes  those  who  love  God  more 
faithful  in  obeying  his  commands  when  they  recover. 
While  lying  here,  I  think  how  uncertain  this  world  is, 
and  how  unwise  it  is  for  me  to  place  my  hopes  upon  it. 
I  think  how  soon  I  must  die,  even  if  I  recover  from  this 
disorder  ;  and  I  think  too  how  many  there  are  in  this 
world  who  are  soon  to  go  to  another,  for  which  they   are 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  109 


Sickness  of  the  wicked.  The  Bible. 

not  prepared,  and  this  leads  me  to  wish  when  I  am  well 
to  be  more  careful  in  obeying  God's  commands,  and  in 
persuading  others  to  obey  them.  I  form  resolutions  to  do 
this,  and  pray  God  to  help  me  keep  them. 

John.  Do  all  people  do  this,  when  they  are  sick  ? 
Teacher.  No,  John— I  am  afraid  not.  There  are  a 
great  many,  who  do  not  think  of  God  while  they  are  well, 
and  then  they  are  afraid  to  come  to  him  when  they  are 
sick  :  or  if  they  do  try  to  pray,  it  is  only  because  they  fear 
they  are  going  to  die  ;  and  when  they  recover,  they  forget 
the  resolutions  they  made  when  they  were  sick.  It  is 
very  common  for  wicked  men  to  be  very  much  alarmed 
when  sickness  comes,  and  to  resolve  to  love  and  serve 
God,  perhaps  thinking  that  they  are  sincere ;  but  when 
they  recover,  they  generally  become  as  wicked  as  before. 
John.  Do  you  think  you  shall  get  well  ? 
Teacher.  I  do  not  know,  John.  That  will  be  just  as 
God  pleases.  I  wish  to  have  him  do  just  as  seems  best 
to  him.  Sometimes  when  I  think  of  it,  and  imagine  my- 
self well,  and  seated  once  more  with  you  around  the  table 
in  our  evening  lecture,  it  seems  as  if  it  would  be  pleasant 
to  enjoy  health  and  strength  again. 

Samuel.  I  wish  it  could  be  so.  But  was  there  much 
more  that  you  were  going  to  tell  us  about  the  Bible?  You 
had  gone  nearly  through  it,  and  we  were  afraid  you  were 
going  to  stop. 

Teacher.  The  Bible,  Samuel,  is  an  inexhaustible  mine. 
There  is  no  end  to  the  interesting  information  which  may 
be  found  in  it  or  concerning  it.  I  once  knew  a  man  who 
informed  me  that  he  had  read  the  Bible  through  twelve 
times  when  he  was  twelve  years  of  age,  and  once  every 
year  up  to  the  time  when  I  saw  him,  when  he  was  more 
than  seventy  years  old, — and  he  said  that  every  time  he 
10 


110  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

The  minister  comes  in. 

found  many  things  new  and  interesting,  which  he  had 
not  observed  before.* 

John.  Was  he  a  good  man  ? 

Teacher.  Yes  :  he  tried  to  obey  the  Bible,  as  well  as 
to  read  it.  But,  as  I  was  going  to  say,  I  wished  to  have 
had  some  more  conversations  with  you  on  the  Bible  ;  but 
God  has  thought  best  to  interrupt  us,  and  we  must  all  feel 
perfectly  willing  to  give  up  whatever  he  chooses  to  take 
away.  Perhaps  I  may  soon  be  restored  to  health,  and 
then  we  may  resume  our  meetings  :  or,  perhaps  God  de- 
signs to  bring  me  soon  down  to  the  dust.  If  so,  I  hope 
and  believe  that  the  Bible  has  been  the  means  of  preparing 
me  to  die.  You  must  all  read  and  study  it  for  this  pur- 
pose. It  will  do  no  important  good  to  you,  merely  to  un- 
derstand its  history,  or  take  pleasure  in  its  interesting 
narratives,  if  you  do  not  learn  from  it  how  your  sins  are  to 
be  forgiven,  and  how  you  are  to  be  prepared  for  heaven. 

While  the  teacher  was  speaking  these  last  words,  a 
gentle  tap  was  heard  at  the  door  of  the  room  :  and  the 
teacher's  sister,  who  was  sitting  by  the  side  of  the  fire, 
walked  softly  across  the  room,  and  opened  the  door.  It 
was  the  minister. 

Well,  my  good  little  girl,  (said  he,  coming  in,)  I  always 
find  you  here.  I  believe  you  are  a  very  patient,  faithful 
nurse.  How  is  your  brother  to-night  ?  (continued  he,  ap- 
proaching the  side  of  the  bed,  and  taking  the  teacher  by 
the  hand.)     Are  you  comfortable,  and  happy  ? 

Teacher.  Yes,  both  :  and  I  believe  I  am  a  little  better 
to-night  than  I  hare  been  for  a  few  days  past.  Though 
the  result  is  still  uncertain. 

Yes,  replied  the  minister,  sickness  wouH  seldom  do  us 
much  good  if  we  were  sure  we  should  soon  be  well  again. 
Then,  turning  round  to  the  boys  who  had  by  this  time 
*  A  fact. 


CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE.  Ill 

John's  reflections.  The  boys  go  home. 

drawn  back  from  the  bed-side,  and  were  standing  near  the 
fire, — How  do  you  do,  John,  and  Roger  ?  I  hardly  ex- 
pected to  find  you  in  a  sick  room. 

Teacher.  They  are  a  part  of  my  class  in  the  Sabbath 
school.  I  have  been  telling  them  about  the  advantages 
of  sickness.  But,  boys,  I  wish  you  would  sit  down  by 
the  fire.  I  wish  to  talk  a  little  with  the  minister,  and 
then  perhaps  I  will  see  you  again  a  moment  before  you 

go- 

The  boys  accordingly  sat  down  :  the  minister  and  the 
teacher  engaged  in  conversation,  and  the  teacher's  sister 
was  busy  at  the  fire  preparing  something  which  the  boys 
supposed  was  for  her  brother.  Samuel  began  to  talk 
with  her  about  him.  Sometimes  the  other  boys  listened, 
and  sometimes  they  sat  still  in  deep  thought.  John 
remembered  how  differently  from  the  teacher  he  felt  and 
acted,  when  he  was  sick  a  few  months  before.  He  re- 
membered that  he  was  peevish  and  fretful,  impatient 
when  in  pain,  and  unwilling  to  take  the  medicines  neces- 
sary for  him.  When  he  thought  of  what  the  teacher  had 
said,  and  saw  that  that  sickness  had  been  sent  by  God,  to 
do  him  good,  by  teaching  him  patience  and  submission, 
he  was  grieved  to  think  that  he  had  learned  it  no  better — 
and  a  tear  stood  in  his  eye. 

They  sat  in  this  manner  some  time,  until  at  last  the 
minister  arose  and  said, — Well,  boys,  I  believe  we  must 
all  go.  I  am  very  glad  your  teacher  has  had  opportunity 
to  see  and  converse  with  you,  now  he  is  sick  ;  but  I  be- 
lieve he  must  not  say  any  more  to-night.  He  has  talketl 
too  much,  and  has  made  himself  tired  and  feverish,  and 
now  he  needs  rest. 

The  boys  were  sorry  to  go  :  but  they  walked  up  to  his 
bed-side,  and  one  after  another  bade  him  good-night,  and 
then,  with  the  minister,  went  away. 


112  CONVERSATIONS    ON    THE    BIBLE. 

Visit  occasion?  serious  impressions  and  earnest  prayer. 

The  deep  impressions  produced  by  this  visit  to  the  sick 
bed  of  their  dying  teacher,  did  not  soon  leave  them.  As 
they  returned  home,  they  dwelt  on  the  subjects  which 
had  been  brought  before  their  minds  ;  and  as  they  spoke 
to  each  other  with  strong  interest  of  the  teacher's  sick- 
ness and  of  his  wished-for  recovery,  each  one  firmly 
resolved  to  remember  his  instructions,  and  endeavor  to 
follow  his  example  of  piety. 

As  they  knelt  that  night  by  their  bed-sides  in  prayer, 
they  did  not  forget  to  implore  God's  blessing  upon  their 
suffering  friend  ;  but  they  prayed  more  earnestly  than  ever 
before,  that  God  would  would  change  their  own  hearts, 
and  bring  them  entirely  under  the  sway  of  the  principles 
and  precepts  of  the  Bible. 


THE    END 


